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PROMINENT 



WOMEN OF TEXAS 



BY 

ELIZABETH BROOKS 









MANUFACTURED BY 

THE WERNER COMPANY, 

AKRON, OHIO 






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3^u 



Copyright, 1896, 

BY 

ELIZABETH BROOKS. 



PREFACE. 



^^HE women of Texas, like the women of every geograph- 
ical division of the globe, and in every age of the world, have 
played their part in the drama of human progress. Like their co- 
workers of the other sex, only the comparatively few have filled 
niches in the pantheon of greatness, but these few, of both sexes, 
had added to the light of the world's illumination some of its 
purest rays, and have given to history some of its lessons of great- 
est value. 

By way of proem to the story of female achievement in Texas, it 
may not be unprofitable to recall a few of the women, who, in their 
day, and by their mental prowess, contributed to human advance- 
ment. In the dawn of history, and among the most favored of the 
race, though subordinated to her lord by civil and religious law, 
woman began her intellectual work. In the person of Deborah we 
find one of the thirteen judges who successively ruled in Israel, and 
one whose wise administration vindicated her claim to the ofiBce. 
When Jeremiah, the prophet, and Hilkiah, the high-priest, and 
Shaphan, the scribe, all faltered in their interpretation of the Divine 
will, only Huldah, the prophetess, could reveal to them the mean- 
ing of the book of the law. In the Golden Age of Athenian learn- 
ing, a woman, as preceptress, unfolded the philosophy of Socrates, 
and formed the rhetoric of Pericles. Sappho entranced cultured 
Greece with the charm of her lyric verse. Hypatia was famed for 
her knowledge in astronomy, and for the profoundness of her phi- 
losophy. In more modern times, the Marchioness of Pescara and 

(V) 



■vi Prominent Women of Texas. 

Margeritte Clothilde de Surville eclipsed all other lights in the 
field of poetry and belles-lettres; while Elizabeth, Lady Jane Grey, 
and Signora Joan of Arragon, made themselves famous as scholars 
and linguists. In theology and eloquence Isabella de Kesara dis- 
played powers that electrified her cotemporaries; and Elena Lucre- 
zia Piscopia, as linguist and mathematician, rose above all the men 
of her time. Even as rulers of great nations, women have held 
■with firm and skillful hand the reins of government, and the throne 
tas been exalted by their wisdom. From Artemesia and Semiramis 
and Zenobia to Elizabeth and Victoria, the crown lost none of its 
splendor while adorning the brow of a woman. In art, as in science, 
she has excelled. When Rosa Bonheur with her brush made the 
canvas to glow with the consciousness of its charm ; when Prosper- 
sia Rossi with her chisel startled the formless rock into life ; when 
the female Herschel with her lens brought down to our sphere the 
secrets of the stellar hosts, the world applauded and confessed that 
painting and sculpture and astronomy found expression in woman's 
genius equal to that displayed by her gifted brother. As his help- 
meet she has also given signal proof of collaborative efEort. Grote, 
the historian, Carlyle, the essayist, John Stuart Mill, the political 
economist, and Agassiz, the scientist, only wrote in part the works 
that made them famous ; their wives were the partners of their toil, 
and they helped to build the pedestals on which these great men 
stand. 

These examples of feminine achievement are proof of potential 
force, of inherent aspirations; they reveal in female nature the qual- 
ities of strong patience, trustful energy and tenacious purpose. 
They give woman place in the palestra of intellectual contest, for 
there she has asserted her readiness to struggle for the prize, and has 
even shown her proud scorn for the palma sine pulvere — the crown 
of victory without the dust of contention. The very obstacles that 
nature and social laws have placed in her way have proved incen- 
tives to her effort. Themistocles, in his exile, said that his ruin had 



Preface. vii 

made his fortune; woman, clothed in the disabilities of her sex, 
may well claim that her fetters have given her liberty and honor. 

The women of Texas, like their sisters in other climes, have an 
experience and a renown of their own. The scene of their lives is 
laid in a land that was pressed by the adventurous foot of the white 
man a hundred years before the Pilgrims touched the Plymouth 
shore — a hundred years in the van of the Mayflower did the battered 
bark of Cabecja de Vaca cast forth the wanderers who were first to 
spy out this land of our Canaan. From that time till now, with 
scarce a day of interruption in her story, has Texas been the scene of 
adventure sprung from avarice, or born of the spirit of conquest and 
discovery. In all her epochs she has attracted the immigrant and 
home-seeker, and, whether, as Province, Republic or State, her visi- 
tors have come in family groups in which the women have borne no 
small share of the labors and dangers of the new life. Beginning 
thus in the generation of the pioneers, these women displayed in- 
trepidity begotten of the perils in which they lived — perils that 
made martyrs of some, heroines of all; pursuing still their wonted 
vigor and high resolve, their successors of to-day have culminated 
in a generation whose powers and culture place them in the front 
ranks of modern progress. 

The bibliography of Texas is bright with female names. Whether 
in the domain of history, travels, romance, adventure, poetry, or 
other learning, women have equally shared the laurels with the 
other sex. Mrs. Holly's " Texas," Mrs. Helm's " Scraps of Texas 
History," Corine Montgomery's " Texas and Her Presidents," and 
Melinda Perkins' " Texas in 1850," are all reliable and entertaining 
narratives of the country. Mrs. Houstouns' four volumes of " Trav- 
els and History," Cora Montgomery's "Life on the Border," and 
Mrs. Eastman's " Romance of Indian Life," are all charming contri- 
butions to Texas literature. Mollie E. Moore's poems, and Au- 
gusta J. Evans' " Tale of the Alamo," have become famous among 
readers everywhere. Mrs. Fairchild's adventures of herself, and 



viii Prominent Women of Texas. 

Mrs. Kelly's "Experience" contain the thrilling recitals of their 
sufferings while in captivity among the Indians. Mrs. Young's 
"Flora of Texas" is the repository of much valuable knowledge 
from the natural history of the State. Mrs. Viele's " Following the 
Drum " is the delightful production of a Texas author. These are 
among the female writers who have adorned our literature ; others 
are in the field; and still others are equipping themselves by col- 
legiate training for the fascinating pursuit. 

In introducing The Women of Texas to our readers, it is appro- 
priate to state that many distinguished in their several spheres have 
been necessarily omitted, and among these the annals of Texas do 
not furnish a brighter story of heroism in the cause of human liberty 
than that of Mrs. Jane Herbert Long, the " Mother of Texas," and 
champion of her freedom. Her husband, the illustrious Gen. James 
Long, was the first to proclaim the independence of Texas. This 
he did at the town of Nacogdoches in the memorable year of 1819, 
and forthwith began the work of organizing a provisional govern- 
ment. Forced by superior numbers of Spanish regulars to retreat, 
he fortified himself on Bolivar Point opposite Galveston, being 
aided by the famous Ben Milam and Capt. John Austin. Here he 
placed his wife, proceeded westward, captured Goliad, and marched 
to San Antonio where he made a treaty whereby he was constituted 
provisional Governor of Texas under the new government of Mexico. 
He was soon after arrested and carried to the City of Mexico, where 
he was assassinated. Meantime the General's soldier wife remained 
at the fort on Bolivar Point, and this she held though the garrison 
deserted their post. She resisted all threats and entreaties to com- 
pass her surrender, occasionally firing a gun to deter the Indians 
from assault ; and in all this peril she was alone with her infant 
child and one servant. Not until she was convinced of her husband's 
death could she be persuaded to abandon the post he had committed 
to her keeping; then she retired, and finally became a member of 
Austin's colony. This ardent patriot made her final home in Rich- 



Preface. ix 

mond, Fort Bend County, where she died in 1880, thus living for 
many years to enjoy the discomfiture of her enemy, and the freedom 
and progress of her beloved land. 

The women of Texas have given their share of representatives to 
the Congress of the distinguished women of the world, and the fol- 
lowing pages will be their commission to accept the tribute and the 
homage that, in every enlightened land, is paid to culture, energy 
and good works. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 



CHAPTER I. 

"WIVES OF TEXAS PRESIDENTS. 
MRS. SAM HOUSTON — MRS. ANSON JONES. 



Mrs. Sam Houston. — Sam Houston and Texas are as 
indissolubly linked in the chain of history as Philip and 
Macedon, Caesar and Rome, the Norman Conqueror and Eng- 
land ; and the splendid achievement at San Jacinto crowTied 
its hero with bays as imperishable as those that fame has 
placed upon the brow of the victors of Cheronsea, Pharsalia, 
and Hastings. 

Sam Houston was of Celtic origin, and was born in Vir- 
ginia in 1793. When a youth he moved with his widowed 
mother to Tennessee, in which State he grew up and earned 
both miUtary and civil distinction — commanding its militia 
as Major-General, representing one of its districts in the Fed- 
eral CongTess, and filling the gubernatorial office at its capi- 
tal. For reasons that he never divulged, he resigned the 
executive oflfice and silently left the State to live among the 
Cherokees in the Indian Territory. From there, in 1832, he 
went to Texas, then a Mexican province and a constituent 
part of the Mexican State of "Coahuila and Texas." Arriv- 
ing in Nacogdoches, he found it the center of a popular move- 
ment to compel the parent government to divorce Texas from 
her uncongenial partner and clothe her with the functions of 
independent Statehood. In pursuance of this object, a con- 
vention was called at San Felipe in 1833, of which General 
Houston was a member. The usurpation of the Mexican 

(11) 



12 Prominent Women of Texas. 

government by Santa Auua had, in the meantime, changed 
the purposes of the people. They now clamored for inde- 
pendence, and to that end convened the General Consultation 
at San Felipe in 1835, for the object of forming a provisional 
government. General Houston was a conspicuous member 
of that body, and when hostilities with the mother country 
resulted from its acts, he was placed in command of the 
Texan forces in the field. He Avas also a delegate to the con- 
vention of 1836 that assembled at Washing-ton, and, on the 
2nd of March of that year, promulgated its famous Declara- 
tion of Independence. Two days later he was elected Com- 
mander-in-Chief, and marched to the front Avith a small force 
to meet the invading army of Santa Anna. The Fabian 
strategy that resulted led the enemy to his fate on the plains 
of San Jacinto, where the independence of the country was 
brilliantly won. On the permanent organization of the Ke- 
public. General Houston was elected its first President, and, 
at the end of his term, was chosen to a seat in the Con- 
gress. It was during this term of Congress that he visited 
]Mobile, Alabama, and there first met Miss Margaret Moffette 
Lea at the home of her brother. Col. M. A. Lea. One year 
later. May 9, 1840, he was married to her at the town of 
Marion in that State, the home of her parents and the place 
of her birth. At the third general election General Houston 
was chosen President a second time by an almost unanimous 
vote of the people. Two years after the conclusion of this 
service he was elected to the convention that annexed Texas 
to the United States, and, in 1846, he was elected by the first 
State legislature one of the two United States Senators, to 
Avhicli high post he was reelected the following year and again 
in 1851. The national importance he acquired is part of the 
political history of the country. Two years after retiring 
from the Senate, he was elected Governor of Texas, the first 
year of his term being the stormy period that immediately 
preceded the Civil War. Entertaining convictions opposed 
to those held by the majority in power on the question of 
secession, and refusing to subscribe the oath of allegiance to 
the Confederate States, he was deposed from his office in 



Prominent Women of Texas. 13 

March, 1861. Saddened by the events that foreboded the 
disruption of the Union, to which he was zealously attached, 
he withdrew from the scenes of his public life to find solace in 
the quiet of his home at Huntsville. He died there, July 26, 
1863. Such, briefly told, was the eventful hfe of one of the 
most famous men of America ; General, President, Governor 
of two States, Senator, and Representative in the United 
States Congress, soldier, orator and statesman. At the age 
of forty-seven, and a widower, he married Miss Lea, who 
though twenty-six years his junior, scarcely realized the dis- 
parity in the abundance of her practical wisdom and in the 
earnestness of her zeal for the public good. 

Mrs. Houston was born April 11, 1819, and is descended 
from one of the cultured families of Alabama. She remained 
under her father's careful instruction until old enough to 
enter Pleasant Valley Seminary, where her school education 
was completed, and where she developed the marked literary 
talent for which she was distinguished in after life. She 
early evinced the religious tendencies that became more 
pronounced as she advanced in years, and, at an age when 
most girls give least thought to the serious side of life, she 
joined the Baptist Church, of which she was ever a consistent 
member. Her marriage ^^^th General Houston excited in 
her mind less the pride of honorable alliance than senti- 
ments of responsibility and obligation attaching to the 
grave trust of her high position. Her example, she felt, 
should be the incense of her dail}' offering at the shrine of 
social progTess, and her wifely devotion the precious oil of 
gladness to lighten the toils of her husband. Pursuing 
these generous impulses, her household became the nursery 
of every domestic virtue, and her husband's public cares 
were daily sweetened by her s^nnpathy and her smiles. She 
was his constant companion, except during the years of his 
senatorial service, when she remained at home, preferring 
the tender charge of her little children to the pleasures of 
society at the nation's capital. During these years, as well 
as before and after them, her home Avas the almost contin- 
uous scene of genial and unassuming hospitalit3^ While 



14 Prominent Women of Texas. 

residing at Austin, her health visibly failed, and, in conse- 
quence, the public enjoyed fewer of her pleasant offices. Her 
removal to her home at Huntsville, following the retiracy 
of her husband from public office, would, it w^as hoped, bring 
rehef mth the promised repose. The hope was fallacious, 
and the gloomiest event of her life, two years later — the 
death of General Houston — added to her pain the burden of 
desolation. After this bereavement Mrs. Houston returned 
to a former home in Independence, with a view to educating 
her children at Baylor University, then located at that 
place. Four years later Mrs. Houston felt herself summoned 
to new fields of labor. The Yellow Fever, in epidemic form, 
entered Texas, and to the relief of its victims she devoted 
herself, with tireless energy and with undaunted and heroic 
courage. She hved and labored through the fearful 
scourge, though prostrated by excessive vigils, toils and 
anxieties. She survived her work only a few weeks, and died 
December 3, 1867, a true martyr in the cause of humanity. 
A beautiful life thus came to a fitting end ; its morning and 
meridian gilded by bright skies, its sunset made glorious by 
the splendor of its own sacrifice. 

Mrs. Houston's body lies buried at Independence; that 
of her husband lies in the cemetery at Huntsville. The dust 
of the dead, whom love united in the past and hope reunites 
in the future, ought, in the present, to be gathered in the 
same urn and be reverenced by a common memory. 

The children born of this union are eight in number, four 
sons and four daughters, here named in the order of their 
birth: Sam, a physician, married Lucy Anderson, of Wil- 
liamson County; Nannie E., married J. C. Morrow, of Wil- 
liamson County ; Margaret Lea, married W. L. Williamson, 
of Washington County; Mary W., married J. S. Morrow, 
of Chambers County; Nettie Powers, married Prof. W. L. 
Bringhurst, of Bryan; Andrew Jackson, married Carrie G. 
Purnell, of Austin, after whose death he married Elizabeth 
Good, of Dallas ; William Roger and Temple. 

In her maternal relation, Mrs. Houston displayed qual- 
ities of surpassing power and tenderness, through which she 



Peominent Women of Texas. 15 

inspired in her children sentiments of profound reverence 
and affection. They never felt the power, they knew only 
the love that guided them. Like Achilles among the maid- 
ens, wearing their garments, she moved among her children, 
clothed in their simplicity, veihng from them the subtle force 
b}^ which they were led into paths of virtue, honor, and 
uprightness. All through life her children counseled mth 
her as with a friend, and, above all, they never failed to seek 
in her sympathy the consolation that, in the words of 
Isaiah, made them feel "as one whom his mother com- 
forteth." The gentle tribute to her memory by Mrs. Bring- 
hurst, her gifted daughter, reveals the sweet influence of a 
mother's holy life and its und;ydng power, even in death. 
Other scenes may fade and other lessons be forgotten, sings 
the heart of this daughter : 

" But the words of my mother still lingered 
Like the echo when songs die away." 

Mrs. Anson Jones. — The wife of the last President of 
the Republic of Texas was Mary Smith, born July 24, 1819, 
in Arkansas, then a Territory. Her father was a Virginian, 
and she the eldest of his five children. When in her fifteenth 
year, she emigrated to Brazoria County, Texas, with her 
mother, who had become a widow, and who there entered in 
second nuptials ^^1th John Woodruff, and there died in 1845. 
Mary was thus left in charge of the young family, and, upon 
the death of her stepfather two years later, was further en- 
trusted with their sole support and education. The rugged 
discipline to which she had been subjected in the twelve 
years of Texas life preceding the loss of her parents, prepared 
her for the duties she was to assume. The country had 
been in an almost uninterrupted state of revolution ; hostile 
invasions of Indians and Mexicans had frequently left in 
their track the cruel work of fire and sword and scalp- 
ing-knife ; the men and even the boys were bearing arms in 
distant fields, and the women and children were often left 
alone to defend the home that sheltered them. It was in 



16 Prominent Women of Texas. 

1836, after the fall of the Alamo and the massacre of Fan- 
nin and his men at Goliad, that consternation fell upon 
every household in the route of the invaders and drove the 
helpless to places of greater safety. Among these was the 
family of John Woodruff, which fled eastward and remained 
in their refuge till their enemy, "The Napoleon of the 
West," had found his Waterloo in the field of San Jacinto. 
About the close of this year the famih^ resolved to leave the 
dangerous highway on which they lived and moved to the 
new town of Houston, then in the infancy of its municipal 
life. There, in July of the following year, Mary Smith was 
married to Hugh McCrory, a soldier, who had but recently 
come with General Felix Huston in the gallant band of 
volunteers from Mississippi. In less than two months the 
young husband died, and the bride was a ^ddow at eighteen. 
Two years after this she removed with her parents to Austin, 
the new seat of government, where she met Dr. Anson Jones, 
and to whom she was married in May, 1840. 

Dr. Anson Jones was a native of Great Barrington, Mas- 
sachusetts, and was born in 1798. He was a physician, 
began his medical career in Philadelphia, and from there went 
to South America where for two years he practiced in 
Venezuela. From there, in 1833, he went to Brazoria, Texas, 
and engaged in the active duties of his profession. From 
this business he was early diverted by the pervading spirit 
of the revolutionary times, and he finally abandoned it for 
the more congenial pursuits of military and political life. 
He enlisted as a private in the Texan army, and, after brief 
service, was commissioned surgeon of Burleson's regiment. 
In 1837 he was elected Representative in the House of Con- 
gress ; the following year he was appointed minister from the 
Republic of Texas to that of the United States, and while 
absent on this mission he was elected to a seat in the Senate 
by which body he was chosen its presiding ofiicer in the 
absence of the Vice President. He was Secretary of State 
during Sam Houston's second presidential term, and at its 
close was elected President of the Republic. He qualified 
and took his office in December, 1844, and the constitu- 



Prominent Women of Texas. 17 

tional term of his service was three years, but, owing to the 
annexation of Texas to the United States, he served less 
than half his term, and, on the 19th of February, 1846, sur- 
rendered the government to James Pinkney Henderson, 
first Governor of the State. Retiring to his plantation in 
Washington County, which he called " Barrington," in honor 
of his birthplace, he there lived in close seclusion from public 
life until he sold the place in 1857. In that year he entered 
the lists as a candidate for the United States Senate and 
was defeated. This disappointment, superadded to the 
popular neglect he suffered while in his retreat at Barring- 
ton, so preyed upon his mind as to render it morbidly 
averse from every social pleasure, from every hopeful 
view of life. In this state of gloom, existence to him became 
a burden— as it had been to the philosophic Aristotle, the 
virtuous Cato, the powerful Clive— incurable melancholy 
seized him, and, on the 7th of January, 1858, he fell its victim 
by his own deliberate act. 

]\Irs. Jones thus, in the eighteenth year of her marriage 
and the thirty-ninth of her age, became a mdow the second 
time. With her four children she moved to Galveston, and 
thence, the same year, to a farm in Harris County which she 
managed with skill, industry and success. There she super- 
vised the education of her children, and gave to them the 
training that distinguishes a practical, sensible, and pious 
mother. Her two eldest sons, Samuel E. and Charles, volun- 
teered in the Confederate army ; the latter fell at Shiloh, and 
the former, after meritorious service, returned home, studied 
dentistry, and is now in the enjoyment of a successful 
practice. The youngest son, Cromwell Anson Jones, became 
a lawyer, and, after winning distinction at the Houston bar, 
was elected Judge of the County Court of Harris County, in 
which ofiice he dispensed justice with gentleness, ability and 
uprightness. He died in 1888, leaving his stricken mother 
crushed under the burden of this added sorrow. Her only 
daughter, Sallie, married R. G. Ashe, and to this daughter 
and her children, and to her remaining son, Mrs. Jones now 
looks for the only earthly joys that can bring solace to her 

W. of T.— 2 



18 Prominent Women of Texas. 

broken life. Her faith in the promises of her Christian belief 
is to her the fountain of perennial consolation in her dis- 
tress, and through this faith she has learned to regard her 
sea of sorrows as the sacred pool in whose troubled waters 
her wounded spirit is made whole. Her religious fervor, her 
strong character, and her unconquerable will, rescue her from 
the despondency under which so many shattered hearts have 
sunk. As far as the infirmities of age permit, she gives 
active help to those around her, and in her daily conversa- 
tion she exhibits the patriotic sentiment she has ever felt 
for the State she dearly loves. In her office of president of 
the "Daughters of the Republic of Texas" she zealously 
fosters the purposes of the order, and lovingly infuses her 
ardor into the hearts of its members. The evening of her 
life is hallowed by the memories of its youth, and in her lat- 
ter days are reflected the warm glow of a life chastened by 
afliiction and softened by the grace of abounding charity. 



CHAPTER n. 

WIVES OF MILITARY HEROES. 

MRS. RUSK — MRS. LAMAR — MRS. FANNIN — MRS. SHERMAN AND 
MRS. WHARTON. 



Mrs. Thomas J. Rusk. — Biographical literature has, in 
all ages, been occasionally enlivened by the contradictions 
and paradoxes of human experience. Calamities have, not 
infrequently, been harbingers of triumph ; losses have been 
productive of gain ; sorrows have been messengers of peace ; 
storms have stranded their victims on golden shores. The 
common soldier Artaxerxes, banished from the ranks of the 
last king of the Parthians, sought asylum in hostile Persia, 
and found a throne. At the court of this same empire, the 
exiled hero of Salamis found favor and fortune, where he 
pleaded only for refuge; and it was there he said: "I should 
have been undone had it not been for my undoing." Thomas 



Prominent Women op Texas. 19" 

Jefferson Rusk, through a dishonest agent, lost all his hard- 
earned substance, and, in seeking to recover it, found fame, 
affluence and honor; and Texas, through this same untoward 
event, acquired one of the most interesting, useful, and versa- 
tile characters of her history. General Rusk had removed 
from his native State of South Carolina to Clarksville, 
Georgia, to practice law. He there married a daughter of 
General Cleveland, a prominent man in his section, and 
there formed business connections — among others, one with 
a company of miners and land speculators. In this the 
managers proved faithless and absconded to Texas with the 
funds of the corporation. He pursued the fugitives beyond 
the Sabine, but failed to recover any portion of his stolen 
property. This was in 1835, and his pursuit led him to the 
town of Nacogdoches. He found the country aflame with 
the spirit of revolution ; every man a soldier, every house an 
arsenal. His sympathetic nature caught the infection, and, 
forgetting all else, he made the cause of the patriots his own. 
From the ranks of a gallant little company he soon advanced 
to its command, and from that to the leadership of the 
Republic's undisciplined but formidable battalions. Obeying 
the voice of the people, he temporarily laid down his sword 
to enter the memorable convention of 1836 that declared 
the independence of Texas. From this body he took service 
in the new government as its first Secretary of War, in which 
capacity, as director of operations in the field, he stopped 
Houston's retreat before Santa Anna, brought on the- 
eventful battle of San Jacinto, and distinguished himself in 
that action as one of the military heroes of Texas history. 
Retiring from the cabinet and acting under a Brigadier Gen- 
eral's commission, he placed himself at the head of the troops, 
and followed in the retreating footsteps of the inVaders; 
arriving at Goliad, he collected the bones of the three hundred 
and thirty victims of Urrea's treachery, and, before giving 
them honorable burial, delivered a funeral oration that, for 
eloquence, pathos, and patriotism, had not been excelled since 
Pericles pronounced his splendid eulogy to the memory of 
the slaughtered Greeks. In Houston's administration he 



■20 Prominent Women of Texas. 

was again called to the cabinet, but soon retired from it for 
a seat in the Texas Congress. In the intervals of his con- 
gressional service he fought the Caddos, the Cherokees, and 
other hostile Indians, and, on the disappearance of danger 
from that source, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Re- 
public. After brief service on the bench he resigned to 
resume his practice at the bar. He favored annexation to 
the United States, and, in 1845, was president of the con- 
vention that formed the constitution of the then future State 
of Texas. In the following year he was elected by the State's 
first legislature as one of her United States Senators, and 
he was retained in that high position till his melancholy 
death in 1857. 

In every act inspired by the manifold zeal of this soldier, 
jurist and statesman, his devoted wife was always his sympa- 
thizer, oft(m his counselor and sometimes his active helper, 
and her experiences in these turbulent times — if not as rugged 
or as perilous as those of her brave husband — were of a 
nature to evoke the self-denial, composure, and courage that 
distinguished her through life. 

It was in 1836 that occasion first offered to put these 
qualities to the test. The little army was scattered 
through the West, fighting the hordes from Mexico ; and the 
hostile Indians, taking advantage of the defenseless situation 
of the Eastern settlements, were combining for bloody 
onslaught on the unprotected women and children. These 
latter, among whom were Mrs. Rusk and her young family, 
fled for safety toward the United States frontier, leaving 
between them and the savages only thirty men under General 
M'Leod, who garrisoned the little fortress at Nacogdoches. 
In their terror, these panic-stricken refugees threw away 
everything that could impede their progress, and, but for 
the calm and comforting assurances of Mrs. Rusk, many 
would have fallen by the way. "As long as the brave M'Leod 
or one of his men is living," she said, "we have nothing to 
fear." The fright of this trembling crowd was, from time 
to time, appallingly increased by a flying poltroon over- 
taking and passing them. On one occasion a dastard, of 



Prominent Women of Texas. 21 

whom there were then fortunately but few in Texas, took time 
in his flight to scream out: "Hurry up or the Indians will 
scalp you." Mrs. Rusk, with undisturbed serenity, and with 
something of humor in her retort, replied to him : "You will 
save your scalp if your horse holds out." 

Mrs, Rusk had seven children of whom the only survivor 
is John C. Rusk, of Ben Wheeler, Van Zandt County. Her only 
daughter, Helena, died young at Nacogdoches. Of the 
others, Thomas J. and Alonzo died in infancy, Benjamin 
died at Austin, Thomas D., died in Harrison County, and 
Cicero was killed in the Confederate army. The care of these 
children was the exclusive office of their mother, and their 
home her supreme sphere. She hallowed its precincts by the 
example of a useful and holy life; she brightened its hearth- 
stone with cheerfulness ; she adorned its altars with domes- 
tic virtues; and taught her children to reverence its sanctity. 
She dispensed its hospitality with generous but prudent 
hands, and she made it the refuge of the indigent, the 
afflicted, and the friendless. She thus became the idol of her 
household, and endeared herself to the people in the homes 
of whose descendants her memory still lingers as a sweet 
savor of the gentle charities of life. 

Mrs. Rusk died in 1856, in the forty-seventh year of her 
age and the twenty-ninth of her married life, and infinitely 
sad were the consequences of this great bereavement. The 
strong, brave husband, whom no danger could appall, no 
calamity overwhelm, fell shattered under the stroke, and in 
deep despondency he languished until, heart-broken and 
mind-broken, his own hand finished the cruel work. 

Mrs. Rusk was a devout Christian and inculcated the pre- 
cepts of her faith wherever she felt they might "bring forth 
fruits meet for repentance." Her heart was the hearth of 
the graces, and there they were warmed by the love that 
inspired her daily work, and in her daily work she was ever 
cheerful, genial and happy. The lines of Leigh Hunt might 
have been written for her. 

"Death, of its sting disarmed, she knew no fear, 
But tasted heaven e'en while she linp-ered here." 



22 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Mrs. Mirabeau B. Lamar. — The wife of the first Vice 
President, and the second President, of the Republic of Texas, 
was the bright and beautiful Henrietta Maffitt, daughter of 
the celebrated Methodist minister, JohnNewland Maffitt, and 
sister of the gallant Fred. Maffitt, commodore of the Confed- 
erate navy. She was married in 1851 to General Lamar, who 
was fifty-three years of age and a widower, and who had 
already achieved fame in both the civil and military history 
of the country. He came to Texas from Georgia, his native 
State, in 1835 ; rendered splendid service as commander of 
cavalry at the battle of San Jacinto ; was President Burnet's 
Secretary of War, signalized his great ability in the presi- 
dential office, at the expiration of which his influence was 
most salutary in the councils of the nation ; and fought in 
the Mexican War, where his reputation was augmented by 
brilliant conduct at the storming of Monterey. Such was 
the record of the brave man of Georgia who united his for- 
tunes with the beautiful woman of Texas. 

Mrs. Lamar and her twin sister Matilda, when almost in 
their infancy, came to Texas with their mother, and lived in 
Galveston ; there she was married, and there, also, was mar- 
ried her sister to R. D. Johnson, of that city. 

So nearly had her life been passed in Texas, and so unal- 
terable and undivided was her devotion to the State, that 
Mrs. Lamar, though not to the manor born, was loath to 
admit any other place to that distinction ; when questioned 
on the subject she always answered with diplomatic evasion 
and with Spartan brevity : "I am a Texan." 

Immediately after her marriage, Mrs. Lamar moved with 
her husband to their plantation home near the historic town 
of Richmond, on the Brazos. There she became an active 
•element in society, and gave zealous support to the Episco- 
pal Church, of which communion she w^as a member. 

In 1857, General Lamar reluctantly accepted a mission to 
one of the American Republics. Accompanied by his wife, 
he went to AVashington for credentials and instructions, in- 
tending to proceed from there to his post abroad. During 
their visit to the Capital, Mrs. Lamar was greatly admired 



Prominent Women of Texas. 23 

for her charming persoiiaHty, and was the recipient of many 
flattering attentions— including an entertainment at the 
White House by the courtly niece of President Buchanan. In 
the midst of these gaieties, and of her preparations for resi- 
dence in foreign countries, she was seriously attacked by a 
bronchial affection— so seriously, that her medical attend- 
ants forbade the voyage, and urged her immediate return to 
Texas. She obeyed the warning, and her husband was thus 
condemned to go alone to his distant mission. The soft cli- 
mate of southern Texas soon restored Mrs. Lamar to her 
wonted health, and she resumed her accustomed place in the 
social and religious circles of Richmond. Superadded to 
these were the responsible and onerous cares of a plantation. 
The duties were new, but she performed them with marvelous 
skill ; she, moreover, fitted herself for the work she was des- 
tined so soon to direct and administer alone. 

After two years' absence. General Lamar returned to his 
home, but he had hardly entered upon its enjoyment before 
he was fatally stricken with apoplexy. 

The marriage of General and Mrs. Lamar, though marked 
by the jjroverbially inauspicious circumstance of disparitj^ of 
age, was exceptionally favored by conditions not always 
conspicuous in the marital relation. They were united in the 
bonds of mutual confidence, affection and esteem. A daugh- 
ter, Loretta, was the issue of this marriage. She has in- 
herited the personal features of her mother, and unites in her 
character the most pronounced qualities of both parents. 
She is the wife of Samuel Douglas Calder, of Richmond, and 
the mother of two children. 

Mrs. Lamar's bereavement dissolved, in a measure, the 
ties that bound her to society, though it strengthened her 
affiliations with schemes for dispensing charity, and added 
fervor to the faith she enjoyed in happier years. 

During the four years of the Confederate War a vast field 
was opened around her for the exercise of the nobler qualities 
of human nature ; she entered with unhesitating step. South- 
ern soldiers and their suffering families found in her a minis- 
ter of comfort and in her stores an exhaustless source of 



24 Prominent Women of Texas. 

helpful charities. Lonff will she be remembered for her boun- 
tiful goodness to the victims of the lost cause, and imperish- 
able in their influence are the lessons of her life. She died 
October 8, 1871. Unfeigned was the sorrow that followed 
her to the tomb, and generous as her gifts will ever be the 
homage offered at the shrine of virtues like hers. 

Mrs. James W. Fannin. — To few names in history attach 
so mournful an interest, so pathetic a memory, as to that of 
Col. James W. Fannin. He was born in Georgia, educated at 
West Point, married in his native State, and from there, in 
the autumn of 1834, removed to Texas with his wife and two 
little daughters, Pinckney and Minerva, respectively two and 
four years of age. He established his home at Velasco, one 
of the twin towns that sentinel the mouth of the Brazos, and 
he there heard from every breeze that war was in the air. 
Mexico was gathering her armies, and Texas w^as arming to 
meet them. He was foremost among the patriots of his sec- 
tion and raised from their number a troop for the relief of 
Gonzales, the Lexington of the Texas revolution. A month 
later he was further to the front, and in the first engagement 
on the march to San Antonio was crowned hero of the battle 
of Concepcion. He then led his fated expedition westward, 
met Urrea with a force five times greater than his own, fought 
valiantly, and surrendered his force to be treated as prisoners 
of w^ar. The capitulation was made to save his men from a 
worse captivity if not from useless slaughter, and to this 
humane conclusion he was even urged by the pious entreaty 
and soft courtesy of his '^ily foe. The treaty was reduced to 
writing and stipulated that officers should be paroled, pri- 
vates returned to their homes, personal property respected, 
besides other usual conditions of civilized w^arfare. This was 
on Sunday, March 20, 1836; one week from that day, the 
Christian's festival of Palm Sunday, these Christian con- 
querors led their beguiled captives to the bloodiest and most 
atrocious massacre of modern times. Urrea, the Fra Diavolo 
of his age, achieved by this refinement of mediaeval perfidy 
the applause of his swashbucklers and the commendation of 



Pkominent Women of Texas. 25 

his master who was then marching to his Waterloo on the 
San Jacinto. The number of victims who fell under Urrea's 
remorseless fusilade was not less than three hundred and 
thirty; Fannin was reserved to give the crowning joy to this 
collation of blood. Knowing that he would refuse, he was 
offered his life on conditions that he scorned; he only asked 
that his last messages of love should be conveyed to his 
family, that his watch should be sent to them, that he should 
be shot in the breast and not in the head, and that his body 
should be buried. His wishes were observed in the manner 
peculiar to his executioners; he was shot in the head, his 
body was left unburied, his messages were not sent, and his 
watch was stolen by the officer to whom it was confided. 

After the foul assassination of Colonel Fannin, the bereaved 
family was received in the home of Col. Wilham H. Jack, near 
Yelasco, where Mrs. Fannin soon died comfortless and heart- 
broken. The eldest daughter, Pinckney, died in 1847, at the 
age of seventeen ; the youngest daughter, Minerva, long sur- 
vived her sister, but only to lead a life more pitiless than 
death. Born with a blighted mind, she groped in intellectual 
darkness from the cradle to the grave. No care and no skill 
could ever illumine with a single ray the long night of her 
clouded life. In 1862, when thirty years of age, she was en- 
tered as a private patient in the Asylum at Austin where, 
by act of the legislature, she was placed under the guardian- 
ship of the superintendent. She there died July 27, 1893, 
and her body now lies in the cemetery provided by the State 
for its honored dead. 

Texas holds in her keeping the dust of the hero of Con- 
cepcion, and of all those he loved in hfe. It is not unrea- 
sonable to hope that, by some unscrutable law, she may 
be exalted through their afflictions, blessed through their 
suffering. 

Mrs. Sidney Sherman. — Neither the story of the tu- 
mults and wars of Texas nor that of her growth in the arts 
of peace and progress can be fully told without a mention 
of the fame that belongs to Sidney Sherman. He came into 



26 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Texas and met her enemy in the crisis of her struggle, 
brought arms and men to her support, fought with splendid 
valor in her decisive battle, then, in the peaceful years that 
followed, helped to develop her industrial life, and thereby 
rear the structure of her permanent greatness. 

He was a lineal decendant of Roger Sherman, of whom 
Jeiferson declared that he "never said a foolish thing in his 
life." The offspring inherited much of the wisdom imputed 
to his great ancestor. He was born in 1805, in Massachu- 
setts, moved when quite a j^outh to Cincinnati, and thence 
to Newport, Kentucky, where he engaged in business. On 
the 27th of April, 1835, he was married at Frankfort to 
Catherine Isabella Cox. She was born April 27, 1815, in 
Franklin County, Kentucky, in which State her grandfather, 
Cornelius Fennick, was one of the earliest pioneers from 
Maryland. Through him she was decended from the first 
Lord Baltimore, grantee of the fair land destined to be the 
cradle of the family in America. After this marriage Sidney 
Sherman and his bride moved into the home at Newport 
prepared by the provident bridegroom. There, after a few 
months, the cry of the distressed Texans reached them from 
the far West, and both were aroused to what they conceived 
the supreme duty of the hour. Encouraged by his wife, even 
assisted by her in the work of recruiting men, he raised and 
equipped a company fifty strong, and, on the last daj^ of 
1835, embarked with them for the scene of their future ex- 
ploits. Mrs. Sherman accompanied the expedition as far as 
Natchez ; from there she returned to her parents in Frankfort, 
and Captain Sherman pursued his march to Texas. He ar- 
rived on the Brazos in February, 1836, and at once hastened 
westward to relieve Travis, who was besieged in the Alamo. 
Finding relief impossible with his small force, he fell back to 
the Brazos, where a regiment was organized and he elected 
its Colonel. Still receding before the enemy, in pursuance of 
the Texan policy, he led his regiment to the last stand of the 
Texans on the San Jacinto, There on the 20th of April— 
the day preceding the famous battle — he dashed into the 
enemy's lines with a reconnoitering force of eighty-five men 



Prominent Women of Texas. 27 

aud fought in gallant style the skirmish that was destined 
to be the harbinger of the country's glorious triumph. On 
the memorable 21st he opened the battle, aud his war cry, 
like that of the brilliant Navarre at Ivry, added fury to the 
fire of the patriots, and carried terror into the ranks of their 
enemy. " Remember the Alamo ! " was the avenging message 
of the martyrs, and it was borne on the clarion notes of a 
thousand echoes to the trembling legions of the tyrant. 
The furious charge, the frenzied rush, the deadly onslaught, 
gave to these legions the wings of terror. In less than twenty 
minutes, retribution had done her effectual work, and the 
independence of Texas was won. 

After participating in this splendid achievement of the 
Texan army, Colonel Sherman followed it to the western 
frontier, but finding, after several months, that no new 
invasion was imminent, tendered his resignation, and asked 
permission of the government to return to Kentucky. Pres- 
ident Burnet, in lieu of his acceptance of the resignation, 
issued to him a Colonel's commission in the regular army, 
with orders to raise a regiment in the United Sta,tes. The 
Secretary of War, " as a testimonial of his gallant conduct," 
])resented to Mrs. Sherman, through an official note, the stand 
of colors he had brought to Texas. This flag she had her- 
self, in the name of the ladies of Newport, presented to her 
husband's company on its departure for Texas ; both it and 
the Secretary's note are still preserved in the family as very 
precious relics. 

After many delays occasioned by sickness, Colonel Sher- 
man joined his wife at Frankfort, and from there they pro- 
ceeded to their home at Newport. He enlisted new recruits 
under his commission and sent them to Texas, and he also 
collected and forwarded the much-needed apparel for the 
men in the field. In December, 1837, he again set out for 
Texas taking with him his wife and her young brother, Cor- 
nelius Cox, and also his own brother, Dana Sherman ; after 
a month's travel the party reached the eventful battle 
ground of San Jacinto, and there camped one night. The 
following day Colonel Sherman and his wife paid a visit to 



28 Prominent Women of Texas. 

ex-President Burnet, at whose instance they bought a home 
on San Jacinto bay. There they lived several years. His 
brother Dana settled near them, and within a year, and on 
the same day, both he and his wife died, leaving their infant 
daughter to Mrs. Sherman, who cared for the orphan until 
seven years of age, then gave her in charge to Colonel Sher- 
man's sister. 

In 1842 Colonel Sherman was elected to Congress from his 
district, and several years later he w^as elected by popular 
vote Major-General of the Texan army, and this position he 
held till Texas was annexed to the United States. He then 
removed to the site of Harrisburg, burned by Santa Anna 
eleven years before; this move was made for the purpose of 
rebuilding the once promising tow^n, and of developing the 
fertile country that lay around it. Directing his wonted en- 
ergies into these new channels of enterprise, he overcame a 
world of obstacles and achieved for Texas her first triumph 
in the era of her new life. He rebuilt Harrisburg; and he 
constructed the first railway in Texas, the road from Har- 
risburg on Buffalo Bayou to Richmond on the Brazos. Only 
one road, and that only a few months before, had preceded 
his west of the Mississippi, so that he was not only the father 
of railroads in Texas but one of the " early fathers " of the 
entire system from the Great Valley to the Pacific. 

In 1853 occurred a series of conflagrations of which Gen- 
eral Sherman was most singularly the victim. His sawmill, 
a valuable one, w^as burned; his dwelling at Harrisburg, 
handsome and costly, was burned ; the railroad ofiice to 
which he had removed his family was burned; and in the 
several fires was consumed much personal property and 
many historical papers of priceless value to the country. 
None of these losses were covered by insurance, and they 
embraced all the earnings of a life of diligent and saga- 
cious toil. 

Following these calamities Mrs. Sherman visited her par- 
ents in Kentucky for the first time since leaving them seven- 
teen years before. On her return to Texas the family moved 
to Galveston, where General Sherman sought to retrieve 



Prominent Women of Texas. 29 

his fortunes in the hotel business, which he conducted until 
1862. At this time the Confederate war was surging toward 
Galveston. He had previously sent his three eldest daugh- 
ters, Caroline, Belle and Sue, to their grandparents in Ken- 
tucky. He now removed his wife and their three remaining 
children to the less exposed position of their first home on 
the bay of San Jacinto. While there, the tide of war swept 
the Island City, and among its defenders fell young Lieut. 
Sidney Sherman, the General's eldest son, only nineteen 
years of age. Six months later the parents were called to 
mourn the death of their youngest child and only remaining 
son, little David Burnet Sherman. These crushing blows, 
added to the memory of the death of their little Cornelius 
at Harrisburg, so wrecked the mother's heart that she 
quickly passed beyond the hope of human cure. General 
Sherman, trusting to the recuperation that rural life might 
bring, bought a farm on the Brazos, near Richmond, to which 
the beloved invalid was removed. While on a visit from there 
to her sister, Mrs. Morgan, at Houston, she died January 20, 
1865. The body was taken to Galveston and there laid by 
the side of her deeply mourned son. There the sorrowing- 
husband, near the ashes he revered, fixed his new home, and 
gathered about him the five children that remained to him 
of the eight born in his happy marriage. Of these five chil- 
dren, three are now living: Mrs. J. M. O. Menard, of Galves- 
ton, and Mrs.W. E. Kendall and Mrs. L. W. Craig, both of 
Houston. General Sherman died in 1873. During the eight 
years he survived his wife, his daily walk bore the marks of 
his irreparable sorrow^ 

Mrs. Sherman's life is singularly instructive in the rela- 
tion that proclaims the fellowship of man. With a heart 
overflowing with sympathy, and a mind strong in its intui- 
tions of right, she was moved by every cause that appealed 
to her gentleness and her judgment. The current of loving 
kindness that flow^ed through her nature was fed from foun- 
tains that gave to it the vigor and freshness of a perennial 
grace, and to these fountains she ascribed the best inspira- 
tions of her life. A firm believer in the creed of the Catholic 



30 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Church, and a devout worshipper at its altar, she sought to 
exemplify its teachings in her daily acts, and to appropriate 
its consolations in the hours of her distress and bereavement. 
Its trinity of graces, its faith and hope and love, were to her 
the unfaihng sources of comfort in affliction, of confidence in 
the improvement of her fellow man, and of compassion for 
all the miseries that afflict his daily life. 

Mrs. Wm. H. Wharton. — Mrs. Wharton's maidenname 
was Sarah A. Groce, and she was the daughter of Jared E. 
Groce, who came to Texas in 1821, and located on the Brazos 
near the present town of Hempstead, where he opened a farm 
known to all oldTexans as '' Groce's Retreat." He brought 
with him seed corn and cotton seed, the latter being the first 
introduced in Texas ; he also built the first cotton gin erected 
in the country. His daughter, at an early age, married Wil- 
liam H. Wharton, a brilliant 3^oung lawyer who was born in 
Virginia, and came to Texas from Nashville, Tennessee, in 
1629. Richly endowed with inherent powers, and possessed 
of a zeal adequate to put them in motion, he soon became a 
prominent figure in the Republic. He was president of the 
convention of 1833, called for the purpose of dissolving the 
bond that united Texas to Coahuila in Mexican statehood; 
two years later he was in the Texan army at San Antonio, 
from which he was summoned by the general consultation to 
proceed to the United States as one of the three commis- 
sioners appointed for that purpose; and, in the year follow- 
ing, he was sent to that government as the accredited min- 
ister from the Republic of Texas. On his return from this 
service, he was elected to the Senate of tlie Republic, in which 
body he achieved distinction. In 1839, he met with an acci- 
dent that terminated his honorable and useful life. His brief 
but brilliant career forms a bright page in Texas history. 
When he came to Texas in 1829 he was accompanied by his 
brother, Col. John A. Wharton, no less talented than himself, 
and who rendered splendid service in the field, the cabinet, 
and the congress of the country. He was never married, and \ 
when he died in 1838, President Burnet, in pronouncing the 



Prominent Women of Texas. 31 

funeral oration, said of his death in terse and touching 
symbol: "The keenest blade of the field of San Jacinto is 
broken." 

Mrs. William H. Wharton's only child was named for this 
lamented brother, and to the rearing of the child — the future 
Gen. John A. Wharton of the Confederate army — she devoted 
the energy, the wealth, the culture, and the affection, with 
which she was richly endowed. He was born in Tennessee 
while the mother was there on a visit, was educated at the 
University of South Carolina, married a daughter of Gov- 
ernor Johnson, of that State, served with distinguished 
ability in the Civil War, and, at its close, was killed in a per- 
sonal rencounter at Houston. His widow and their httle 
daughter did not long survive him, thus leaving Mrs. William 
H. Wharton the sole representative of an illustrious Texas 
family, and rendering its name totally extinct at her death. 

She is remembered as a forceful personality in both social 
and political life, and she is described by a writer of her time 
as "a model of womanly dignity, courtesy, and liberality." 
She gave freely of her bounty to alleviate the sorrows of the 
poor, to promote the cheerfulness of society, and to advance 
the cause of national freedom. There are still extant some 
of her letters addressed to prominent public men in the days 
when doubts darkened the prospects of Texan independence, 
which breathe a spirit of fervor, of energy, and of patriotism 
worthy the noble women of Saragossa in this century, and 
those of Carthage in the heroic ages of the past. Her appeals 
in the cause of human liberty were not unheard by the reso- 
lute, nor unheeded by the wavering, and she lived to rejoice 
in the fulfillment of her supreme prayer that the Texans, 
then grappling with tyranny, should become "a great and 
happy people." 



32 Prominent Women of Texas. 

CHAPTER III. 

PIONEERS— HARBINGERS OF CIVILIZATION. 

MRS. CHARLOTTE WOODMANCY MITCHELL — MRS. CHARLOTTE 

M. ALLEN — MRS. ISABELLA GORDON — MRS. 

ELIZABETH CANTERBURY. 



Mrs. Charlotte Woodmancy Mitchell. — In the first 
year of the nineteenth century, at Elizabethtown, New 
Jersey, was born the subject of this memoir. While yet 
a child she was taken by her parents to Pennsylvania, 
w here, at the age of sixteen, she married Mr. Jennings, who 
lived only three weeks. The young widow, in the year fol- 
lowing her bereavement, was married to Asa Mitchell, 
whose fortunes she shared and whose name she bore to the 
end of her brief, but eventful life. The young couple moved 
to Kentucky, from which State, in 1822, they embarked in a 
flat boat down the Mississippi, destined for the wilds of Texas, 
to which they w^ere allured by the eloquent agents of Austin's 
colony. Arriving in New Orleans with little else besides the 
youth and hope and energy that inspired their brave quest 
of adventure, they were joined by kindred spirits, all at- 
tracted to the new El Dorado in the West. A schooner 
was chartered by the party, numbering about thirty, and 
largely made up of young men, and the voyage begun. After 
a sail of forty days down the Mississippi, and westwardly on 
the gulf, they entered Matagorda Bay, and landed near the 
mouth of the Colorado River, upon a point on which is now- 
situated the town of Matagorda. The schooner, after dis- 
charging her passengers and cargo, sailed away and left the 
intrepid colonists upon an unexplored shore, cut off, by their 
own resolute choice, from return or retreat, and irretrievably 
committed to a fortune as unknown as the strange coast on 
which the}- stood. 

The country was wild, desolate and uninhabited, save 
by hostile savages ; the first step of the colonists, therefore, 
was to study their environments and reconnoiter the land 



Prominent Women of Texas. 33 

that lay beyond. In one of their excursions they encoun- 
tered a party of Mexican traders from whom they bought a 
few horses, and, with these to bear their burdens and assist 
their locomotion, they resolved to explore the interior. 
Leaving a force of eight young men to guard the provisions 
and baggage, they moved slowly northward along the west 
bank of the Colorado, bivouacing at night and closelj' senti- 
neled, until they reached the beautiful bend of the river where 
now is built the town of Columbus. They there pitched 
their camp and began to construct shelters from the rude 
lumber they hewed from the forest around them, and in one 
of these Mrs. Mitchell was comfortably housed. Havingthen 
found the haven of their search, and provided it with tem- 
porary security, a few men were detailed for its protection, 
and the rest, mounted on the horses they had bought, re- 
turned to the coast to bring the provisions and the guard 
that had been left behind. Great was their consternation, on 
reaching the Bay, to find nothing but a plundered camp, 
and not even a trace of the eight men left to protect it. 
Neither the goods nor their custodians have ever since 
been heard of. It was then and is still believed, with almost 
conclusive proofs, that the Carankawa Indians were the dep- 
redators, and that the unfortunate men who fell in their 
hands w^ere sacrificed in the savage carnivals of the can- 
nibal captors. This man-eating tribe then infesting the gulf 
coast, w^ere experts with the canoe and subsisted principally 
on fish; it numbered about a thousand braves whose his- 
tory is an unvarying record of thefts and murders perpe- 
trated on all who happened in the path of their bloody forays. 
They were of large stature, of brawny strength, and of mar- 
velous skill in the use of the bow ; they were cruel, crafty and 
cowardly, and to the same extent that they were feared by 
weaker tribes did they become a terror to the members of 
Austin's colony. It was, therefore, resolved to extirpate them. 
In 1825 they were vigorously pursued in their westward 
flight beyond the San AntonioRiver, where, through the inter- 
cession of a friendly priest, they were permitted to enter into 
a convention wherein they solemnly promised never again to 

W. of T— 3 



34 Prominent Women of Texas. 

enter the territory or disturb the peace of the white men. 
As might have been expected, the faithlessness of the barba- 
rians made short work of the truce, and the war of exter- 
mination was revived. While it was still waged, the Catholic 
Church undertook the conversion of these heathens, and, for 
that purpose, the Mission of Refugio, previously built by the 
Franciscans, was devoted to their instruction. This mission 
was situated on the San Antonio River, about thirty miles 
south of the town of Goliad, then known as the settlement of 
La Bahia. Neither the canons of the Church nor the guns of 
the colonists, though the methods of conversion peculiar to 
each were vigorously exerted in their own way, succeeded in 
bringing a single penitent to the altar of civilization. They 
persisted in their atrocities, and their enemies persisted in 
organized efforts to destroy them ; their numbers grew less 
from year to year until, in 1842, they had dwindled to less 
than half a hundred men, women and children; these took 
refuge in Mexico, and there they ceased from their troubling 
until not a single Carankaw'a is left to tell the story of his 
tribe. Such were the savages whose bloody hospitality so 
early clouded the lives of Asa Mitchell and his companions. 
The men from the camp, appalled by the calamity that was 
pictured to their mind, hurried back to their camp, resolved 
to abandon their desperate enterprise and go back to the 
civilization they had left behind. For the purpose of raising- 
money to defray the expenses of their return, Asa Mitchell, 
and a few others, went West and bought mules which they 
took overland to Louisiana, and there sold at a profit. They 
proceeded to New Orleans and invested their funds in supplies 
suitable for colonists, and recruited about thirty young men 
for a new colonizing adventure beyond the Rio Grande. They 
chartered a schooner and cleared for Matamoras, Mexico, 
intending to stop at Matagorda Bay, and there take on board 
Mrs. Mitchell and the other colonists who had been left with 
her, who were to be brought down from the camp for em- 
barkation. After entering the gulf, the schooner encountered 
a storm and was finally cast upon the beach near the mouth 
of the Brazos River. All hopes for the Matamoras scheme 



Prominent Women of Texas. 35 

had now to be abandoned. From the wreck the men rescued 
their supplies, also the ship's two yawls and enough of its 
timbers to build a secure retreat from danger and exposure; 
this latter was constructed on the east bank of the river, on 
the site of the present town of Velasco, and was often used 
as a rampart of defense against the dreaded Carankawas. 

While Asa Mitchell and his companions were passing 
through these experiences, Mrs. Mitchell, who had been left in 
the camp on the Colorado, was exposed to perils equally as 
exciting, and none the less dangerous. The Carankawas 
made frequent forays into the neighborhood of the encamp- 
ment, and on one of these massacred an entire family. 
Alarmed for her own safety, and that of her two little child- 
ren, she at last procured a guide and sought safety in flight,, 
going eastward till she reached a block house built and oc- 
cupied by one of the first pioneers. This was on the west 
bank of the Brazos River, and upon a spot now forming part 
of the town of Richmond. Thus, after months of separation 
and perilous adventure, Mrs. Mitchell and her husband found 
themselves, driven by calamity, at places of which neither, on 
parting, had any knowledge, and yet at places watered by 
the same river — he at its mouth, and she not more than sixty 
miles above it. 

After vigorous search, Mrs. Mitchell's retreat was located, 
and her husband ascended to it in one of the schooner's 
yawls. Both came dow^n the river in safety, notwithstanding 
hostile Indians on either shore, and landed in the Yelasco 
camp, Avhere, for the first time during her peregrinations,. 
Mrs. Mitchell was comfortably and securely quartered. Asa 
Mitchell here left his family, and, with a few men, reascended 
the river to examine the land on its shores. About thirty 
miles from the mouth they landed at a place now covered by 
the town of Columbia ; made a clearing and planted corn, 
vegetables, and tobacco ; from the sale of the latter, to the 
Mexican traders, they realized the snug sum of twelve hun- 
dred dollars. This was in 1823. In the year following Asa 
Mitchell went to San Felipe, where Austin's colony had 
opened its office, and enrolled himself as a colonist, receiving 



36 Prominent Women of Texas. 

his head-right certificate for a league and labor of land. 
This certificate he at once located at the mouth of the Bra- 
zos, where Mrs. Mitchell had been previously provided with a 
home. Colonists now began to arrive in large numbers from 
the States, and lands were located and cultivated by them 
all along the fertile valley of the Brazos. 

These accessions proved too formidable for the prowess of 
the Indians, who soon ceased to be dangerous, and, in time, 
altogether disappeared. Mrs. Mitchell lived in her new home 
on the site of the present town of Velasco, and enjoyed its 
security and abundance for ten years from the date of her 
arrival. She died there in 1832, leaving four children, of 
whom the only survivor is the venerable and respected Na- 
than Mitchell, of San Antonio. She was buried with a newly- 
born babe, in the soil for which she had struggled and suf- 
fered. Her life was pure, brave, and active, and her memory 
is fragrant with the incense of good and noble deeds. To use 
the words of one of her biographers, she was "a brave, 
intelligent, and Christian woman." 

Mrs. Charlotte M. Allen. — The bright and busy city 
of Houston owes her name and much of the nurture that 
gave the initial impulse to her infantile years to Mrs. Char- 
lotte M. Allen. She and her husband were the owners of the 
land on which the city is built, having acquired their title by 
purchase from the widow of John Austin. At this time their 
home was in the town of Nacogdoches, where they dispensed 
their generous cheer to all who came within their gates. It 
was on the occasion of a visit of Sam Houston to this home 
that occurred the incident which determined the name of the 
beautiful city then not in embryo. General Houston, who 
was then wearing the laurels of San Jacinto, was a guest of 
the Aliens, and was discussing with them the possibilities of 
their proposed enterprise to found a town on the land they 
had purchased, when he asked Mr. Allen what name he in- 
tended to give it. Mrs. Allen, before he could answer, said 
that she should claim the honor of naming the new city, and 
that the name should be "Houston." This settled the 




MRS. CHARLOTTE M. ALLEN. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 37 

matter, and the future infant, like the predicted Immanuel, 
was named before it was born. The General, with the grace 
and fervor that were his by nature, acknowledged the com- 
pliment of his hostess, and, in a sentiment that proved 
prophetic, wished that the new town might expand in its 
growth to the magnitude of a great city, and become the 
pride of the Lone Star Republic. 

Mrs. Allen was the daughter of Doctor Baldwin, of New 
York; was born in 1805; and was married at the age of 
twenty-six to Augustus C. Allen, who was one year her junior. 
Two years after their marriage he moved to Texas and set- 
tled in Nacogdoches, where, the year following, his wife joined 
him. Two years later — just after the battle of San Jacinto, 
they bought the tract of land to which reference has been 
made. To this land the young couple removed, and began 
with the young town to build up the destiny for which they 
were reserved. All her later years were passed within its 
limits; her life winds its course like a thread through the 
web of its history ; the hopes of both were bound up in its 
destiny. 

In 1837, the Texas Congress, then sitting at Columbia, 
honored the new city by making it the temporary capital of 
the Republic. This was mainly effected through the energetic 
efforts of Mr. Allen, aided and supplemented by the winning 
influence of his wife. He and his brother, John K. Allen, 
built the statehouse that sheltered the government until the 
removal of the capital to Austin in 1839. 

Several years after the annexation of Texas to the United 
States, Mr. Allen was sent as consul to Minatitlan, Mexico, 
w here he officiated until the Civil War. He then proceeded to 
Washington to settle his consular accounts with the govern- 
ment, and there died in 1863. During the eleven years of his 
absence Mrs. Allen had remained at Houston, developing the 
interests left in her charge, and dispensing the amenities and 
charities of life for which she was greatly distinguished. 

After a widowhood of thirty-two years, Mrs. Allen 
died in her home in Houston, on the 3rd of August, 
1895, at the venerable age of ninety years. She was 



38 Prominent Women of Texas. 

the mother of four children, only one of whom, a daugh- 
ter, lived to reach the age of mature years. A single 
<iescendant, Thomas Pierce Converse, survives to repre- 
sent the fame and the virtues of the Mother of the city 
of Houston. 

Mrs. Isabella Gordon. — The subject of this sketch, 
better known as "Aunt Ibbie Gordon," came to Texas from 
Kentucky, wdth her father in 1823, being then eighteen years 
■of age. The family settled on Mill Creek in what is now 
Bowde Countj^ the extreme northeastern division of the 
State. In the follo^^^ng year the daughter married John 
Hanks, and the couple moved to Jonesboro, then an im- 
portant trading-post, on the southern bank of Red River 
and on the main line of travel along the western frontier. 
There the husband died three years later, leaving one daugh- 
ter as the issue of the marriage, and the young widow went 
back to her father's house. Two years afterwards she mar- 
ried Capt. Jim Clark, a native of Tennessee, with whom she 
returned to the former domicile in Jonesboro where they con- 
tinued to abide pending the preparation of a new home 
farther west. 

It was while living there that the war for Texas' independ- 
ence began to be waged ; and it was there, on the highway of 
travel, that recruits from the northwest halted in their pas- 
sage to the scenes of conflict. Their zeal added fuel to Mrs. 
Clark's patriotism, and her patriotism gave aid and com- 
fort to their cause. It was there that, in 1832, one of the 
illustrious men of Texas' history first set foot on Texas' 
soil. This was Sam Houston, American by birth and in- 
stinct, Cherokee by adoption, once congressman and Gov- 
ernor of Tennessee, and already famous as warrior, statesman 
and politician. He was commissioned by Andrew Jackson to 
negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes of the southwest, 
and was on his way to hold conference with their chiefs. To 
reach the scene of his operations he followed the trail that 
led through the Indian Territory, and came to the northern 
bank of Red River, opposite which stood the trading-post 



Prominent Women of Texas. 39 

of Jonesboro. He there fell in with Ben Milam, the future 
hero of Goliad and San Antonio, and of him he inquired the 
probabilities of finding something to eat. Milam told him 
that he himself was a guest of the family living on the other 
bank, and that accommodations could no doubt be had 
there. They, accordingly, crossed the river together, and, 
entering the only house on the southern bank, were wel- 
comed by Milam's hostess, Mrs. Clark, the "Aunt Ibbie Gor- 
don " of our narrative. In relating the sequel of this meeting 
she says that with her own hands she cooked the first food 
that Sam Houston ever ate in Texas, and that her roof was 
the first on Texas soil to shelter the future President of the 
great Eepublic. Her distiuguished guest tarried but a day, 
and resumed his southward trail to Nacogdoches, the Mecca 
in those days of all western enterprise. His visit, though 
brief, w^as long enough to impress himself upon his admiring- 
hostess, who described him as handsome, courteous, intelli- 
gent, and most fascinating in manner and conversation. 

Two years after this episode in her life, Mrs. Clark re- 
moved with her husband to their new home in what is now 
Ked River County, and on a site upon which is seated the 
present flourishing town of Clarksville. They then laid its 
foundation and began the labors that have culminated in its 
present importance. It was in 1835, the year following their 
removal, that Mrs. Clark met another of the heroes who are 
famous in Texas history. This was David Crockett, who 
gave up his life in the bloody siege of the Alamo. He was 
following the usual trail on his way to the headquarters of 
the Texan army. She heard of his approach and resolved 
on giving him the welcome she had extended to the many 
patriots who had passed that way before him ; but having 
removed to Clarksville, somewhat off the line of travel, she 
knew she could not see him unless she intercepted him in the 
course of his route. This she determined to do, and, after a 
brisk horse-back ride of a few miles, brought up at the house 
of a settler where she found the object of her eager pursuit. 
A few^ words served to introduce these earnest advocates of 
a common cause, and a mutual hatred of op})ression soon 



40 Prominent Women of Texas. 

gave to each a knowledge of the glowing patriotism that 
burned in the bosom of the other. After a few hours of 
mutual solace and encouragement they parted, he, for the 
field of his exploits, and she, for the home where dwelt the 
brightest spirit of Texas independence. This home was sad- 
dened, not many months afterwards, by the fate that befell 
the brave Crockett ; and only three years later it was made 
desolate by the death of Captain Clark. In the year fol- 
lowing this second bereavement, Mrs. Clark was married to 
Dr. George Gordon, who died in 1872, after a happy mar- 
ried life of thirty-three years, during which he and his 
wife lived in her old Clarksville domicile. There, in the 
house she entered sixty years ago, "Aunt Ibbie Gordon" 
lived to reach the patriarchal age of ninety, not seared 
but only mellowed by time, bright in mind, cheerful in 
spirit, and, prior to her last illness in 1895, sound in body 
and rejoicing in the reverence and affection of all who 
lived around her. Her life had, moreover, been blessed by 
several sons whose honorable lives reflected the virtues 
of their venerable mother, and brought to her declin- 
ing years the peace that only a mother's heart could 
feel. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Canterbury. — Mrs. Canterbury's 
maiden name was Elizabeth Menifee and her first husband 
was Wilson Irvine Riddle, with Avhom she came to Texas in 
1841. He was a British subject and a merchant; she was a 
native of Virginia and belonged to a family that had given 
to Texas, in the time of her need, one of the men who wrested 
from its oppressive masters the land in which his kinswom.an 
had ventured to cast her lot. This man was William Menifee, 
who, in 1830, emigrated from Alabama to Texas ; was a 
delegate to the convention that declared Texas' independence; 
was one of the committee appointed by that body to draft 
a constitution for the new government ; was twice a member 
of Congress, and was one of the commissioners who located 
the new capital at Austin. 

Mr. Riddle, on entering Texas, at once proceeded west- 



Prominent Women of Texas. 41 

ward to his destination and opened a mercantile house in 
San Antonio, then the most exposed and the most tur- 
bulent of the frontier towns. He and his young wife were, 
from the first, almost daily shocked by reports of lawless- 
ness and savagery around them. They awaited with anxious 
fear for the beginning of their own rough experience. The 
suspense was not a long one. It was in 1842 — the ,year fol- 
lowing their arrival, and a most memorable year in the 
annals of the Republic — that they became active partici- 
pants in one of the tumultuary scenes common in that 
day. In March of that year the Mexican general Vasquez 
entered the unprotected town and took possession in the 
name of his government beyond the Rio Grande. Mrs. 
Riddle, following the example of most of the American resi- 
dents and only concerned for her personal safety, fled before 
the invader to the neighboring town of Gonzales. There 
she remained till October following, notwithstanding that 
Vasquez and his horde had evacuated San Antonio after 
only a few days' occupation. Meanwhile Gen. Adrian Woll, 
in September, marched into the town with a still more for- 
midable army, and so craftily had his approach been con- 
ducted that the invasion was not suspected until fully 
accomplished. The little frontier force was absent on one 
of its many duties, the people w^ere pursuing their business 
as in times of peace, and the district court w^as in session 
with the usual number of persons in attendance. All this 
was changed in a moment. Stores and houses were closed, 
valuables concealed, and couriers dispatched for military 
help. In the course of a few days Colonel Caldwell had col- 
lected a small force of Texans on the Salado, several miles 
from town. Woll there attacked the Texans and w^as re- 
pulsed with heavy loss. On his retreat tow^ard the town, 
he found himself confronted by a few Texans under Captain 
Dawson, who were on their way to reinforce Colonel Cald- 
well. A desperate battle followed between Dawson's fifty- 
three men and Woll's eight-hundred. The issue of such 
unequal contest was easily foreseen, but it did not weaken 
the splendid valor of the heroic little band, of which only two 



42 Prominent Women of Texas. 

escaped unscathed. Nearly two-thirds fell, sword in hand, 
and the rest w'ere overwhelmed by numbers. The enemy 
concealed his loss, but enough was seen to know that his 
victory was dearly won. Humiliated by the contrast be- 
tween his conscripted myrmidons and his indomitable foe, 
Woll hastened to his quarters in the town, and on the follow- 
ing morning began his countermarch to Mexico. He carried 
with him as prisoners the entire judicial branch of the gov- 
ernment — judge, lawyers, oflBcers, and all — together with other 
prominent citizens, among whom was Mr. Riddle. Chained 
together in pairs they were marched to Mexico, and there 
held during a season of wretched and degrading captivity. 

After Woll's departure Mrs. Riddle returned to San An- 
tonio from her refuge to find her husband carried off, his 
store pillaged, and their home plundered of its most valuable 
effects. Being British subjects, a spoliation claim was filed 
against Mexico by their government, but, following the 
dilatory course that usually attends diplomatic negotia- 
tions of the kind, it is still pending. 

Mrs. Canterbury in her marriage with Mr. Riddle had two 
children : James Wilson Riddle, who is a merchant at Eagle 
Pass; and Mrs. Eager, now a widow residing in San An- 
tonio. She lives with her widowed daughter; and though 
broken in health, her memory is untouched by time and she 
sometimes brings from its stores vivid scenes in the expe- 
rience of a long and eventful life. 

CHAPTER IV. 

MRS. MARY E. BELL — MRS. JOHN W. McCULLOCH — MRS. PIETY 
LUCRETIA HADLEY— MRS. JANE RICHARDSON CONNELL 
— MISS ANNE WHARTON CLEVELAND — MRS. 
WILLARD RICHARDSON — MRS. VIR- 
GINIA HUNT DICKENS. 



Mrs. Mary E. Bell. — Among the early mothers of Texas 
not one stood nearer to the hearts of all who knew her, and 
this included nearly every settler in Austin's and De Witt's 
colonies, than Mrs. Mary E. Bell. She was born in Kentucky 



Prominent Women of Texas. 43 

in 1799, daughter of McKinzie, and in 1819 married 

Josiah W. Bell, from South Carolina. No surviving veteran 
of those days will gainsay this assertion : To the poor, to the 
noble young men of good families who came to our relief from 
the United States, and were of necessity discharged from 
the army in 1836-37 without food, money, or proper cloth- 
ing, she was, to the extent of her means, an angel of mercy, 
and in this last respect she had worthy co-laborers in the 
persons of her sister and brother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph 
M. McCormick. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bell arrived in what is now Washington 
County, on the Brazos, early in 1822, having an infant 
daughter named Lucinda, who has long been the widow of 
Dr. J. W. Copes. Later in 1822 a son was born to her who 
became well known in manhood as Thadius C. Bell, a useful 
man of high moral principles, who died a few years after the 
Civil War. Two or three years after this Mr. and Mrs. Bell 
settled on the league of land fronting on the Brazos, in 
Brazoria County, in which were subsequently located the 
towns of East and West Columbia, first called Maion or 
Bell's landing, where the first Congress of Texas assembled 
in 1836, and where Santa Anna was confined during a por- 
tion of his captivity, and where Stephen F. Austin died De- 
cember 27,1836; Capt. John Austin, in 1833; Capt. Henry 
S. Brown, on July 26, 1834 and Capt. Byrd Lockhart 
in 1838. 

Mrs. Bell's third child, James H. Bell, was born in Co- 
lumbia, in 1825 ; educated at Harvard College ; became an 
eminent lawyer; and in 1856 was elected judge of his 
native district. When thirty-three years of age he was 
elected one of the Supreme Judges of the State. A few years 
since he died near Austin. 

Left a widow in 1838, Mrs. Bell continued to reside at the 
old homestead until her death, which was caused by being- 
thrown from her buggy, in 1856. At the burial of Mrs. 
James Kerr, in the wilderness, in 1825, there being no min- 
ister present, Mrs. Bell supplied the place of one and read 
the burial service. 



44 Prominent Women of Texas. 

The influence for good exercised by this daughter of Ken- 
tucky for the first quarter of a century, in the life of Texas, 
and its ultimate effect upon the country, can never fully 
be known. That it was great, and blessed in its fruit, every 
surviving old pioneer will verify. Ever ready with hand and 
heart and those consolations drawn from the Bible, she was 
the counselor and helper of those in sorrow, and often the 
comforter at the portals of death. Her memory, either by 
knowledge or tradition, is embalmed in the hearts of the sur- 
viving children of her early compeers. She was an earnest 
worker in the earliest attempts at establishing Sunday 
Schools in the county, and the pioneer ministers of the 
Gospel in those early days ever found a welcome and a 
home under her roof. Brazoria has just cause to feel proud 
of this noble woman, and of having nurtured so many of her 
worthy descendants and kindred, among the latter of whom 
is the Hon. Andrew P. McCormick, now Circuit Judge of the 
United States, and a resident of Dallas. 



Mrs. John W. McCulloch. — Formerly Miss DoveyM. 
Robinson, the daughter of Hon. Milas Robinson, of Charlotte, 
North Carolina, reflected many of the sterling qualities that 
had paved the way to her father's political preferment. Upon 
reaching womanhood, she married Mr. John W. McCulloch. 
When she was only thirty-five years of age, the happiness of 
this union was destroyed, gloom shrouded her life, and a 
widow's weeds became the symbol of her grief. She had five 
children, and in forecasting the future advantages that Texas 
might offer her sons, this brave lady disposed of her interest 
in North Carolina, and with her children and slaves journe3^ed 
westward through the wilderness to Texas. Mrs. McCulloch 
located in Red River County, where she purchased farm lands 
and became one of the successful pioneer planters of the 
State. 

At one period she had resided for a number of years in De 
Soto County, Mississippi, previous to the exit of the Chicka- 
saw Indians. This experience had fortified her courage and 
developed the masterful resources that were evinced b}^ her 



Prominent Women of Texas. 45 

daily heroism in this State. Comparatively unsettled condi- 
tions environed her life. At times wolves and wild animals 
surrounded her home, but the innumerable dangers and dis- 
comforts of a frontier country were met with a cheerful, 
hopeful spirit. Her ever-increasing faith in the prosperity of 
the State she was destined to realize ; for, though her active 
career terminated with the beginning of the Civil War, she 
reached the advanced age of eighty years. Past the zenith of 
life, she neared its evening finding consolation in the faith 
that inspired Wesley, and the retrospection of many kindly 
deeds. One daughter, Mrs. Sallie Dick, of Clarksville, Texas, 
and a half brother, Mr. John Polk, of Corpus Christi, sur- 
vive her. 



Mrs. Piety Lucretia Hadley, daughter of Maj. David 
Smith and his second wife. Obedience Fort Smith, was born 
in Logan County, Kentucky, April 2, 1807. Her parents 
moved to Mississippi about 1820, and she was sent back to 
Eusselville, Kentucky, to attend school, graduating with first 
honors, and returning to her home in (or near) Jackson, 
Mississippi, after finishing her collegiate course. Her brother, 
afterwards well known in the Texas revolution, Maj. Ben Fort 
Smith, having been appointed Indian agent very soon after 
her return, took his favorite sister with him to make a home 
for him, which she did during his term of office. On June 
14, 1831, Miss Piety Lucretia Smith was married to Mr. T. B. 
J. Hadley, in Jackson, Mississippi. She has five daughters, 
four are still living in Houston, and one in Santa Fe, New 
Mexico. In July, 1840, Colonel and Mrs. Hadley moved to 
Houston, Texas, where the former died in 1868, aged sixty- 
seven years, and where the latter is still living at the vener- 
able age of eighty-eight years, having been a member of the 
Baptist Church since, 1834, and one of the founders of the 
First Baptist Church in Houston. 

Mrs. Hadley has always filled a prominent place in the 
religious and social circles of Houston, A woman of fine in- 
tellect, high moral worth, and unusual conversational powers. 



46 Prominent Women of Texas. 

having all her life associated with meu and women of culture 
and prominence. 

Mrs. Jane Richardson Connell, the widow of the late 
Dr. Alva Connell, of Houston, Texas, died in that city at 
her home, on the 29th of November, 1892. Mrs. Connell, 
so widely and well known as one of the most noble of Texan 
women, in the organization and work of numerous charitable 
and church societies, was a Georgian by birth, a sister of the 
well-known Hon. Eli H. Baxter, once a judge on the bench of 
the Supreme Court of that State. 

Mrs. Connell was born in Hancock County, Georgia, in 
1823, and was married to Doctor Connell at Concordia, 
Georgia, in 1845. Doctor Connell and his wife lived in 
Marietta, Georgia, until 1867, at which time they removed 
to Houston, Texas. Here Mrs. Connell's three children : Dr. 
Alva Connell, Jr.; Mr. E. B. Connell, one of the editors of The 
Post; and Mrs. J. A. Huston were born. One, Doctor Con- 
nell, died in 1872, one year after his father's death. The 
other two survive, and of Mrs. Huston, it may be truly 
said, she bids fair to tread the same heaven-lighted path of 
duty in which her mother walked. 

To say that Mrs. Connell was a grand woman does her 
only feeble justice. As a wife, mother, friend, and follower 
of the principles of Christianity, she was more than exem- 
plary; she was an enthusiast. For many years of her 
long life, she was a consistent member of the Presb3^terian 
church ; was for years the president of the Presbyterian 
Ladies' Aid Society ; and was also a charter member of the 
Woman's Exchange, of Houston, and its first president. 
But it was in her private, Christian character that her gentle 
deeds shone with brightest luster. None were too humble to 
receive her kindly words, and her open, liberal charities were 
proverbial. 

Miss Anne Wharton Cleveland, was a native of Ken- 
tucky, but came with her father to Texas, in 1832, at the 
early age of nine j^ears. Her mother contracted cholera, en- 
route, in passing through New Orleans, where it was epidemic, 



Prominent Women of Texas. 47 

and died, at Velasco, Texas, leaving a family of five small 
children, which was a pitiable condition for the father of these 
little ones. Mrs. Wm. H. Wharton's tender heart was touched 
by their bereavement, and asked the father to give Anne to 
her, that she might take the place of her mother, and this 
charge she filled in the tenderest and most faithful manner, 
adopting the little orphan as her own. After the establish- 
ment of the independence of Texas, Col. Wm. H. Wharton was 
sent, as minister to the United States, from the new Republic, 
and, in the midst of Washington society, the child grew to 
womanhood . Two years after the organization of the govern- 
ment, she met Judge Edward T. Branch, who had taken part 
in the first and second sessions of the Congress of the Repub- 
lic of Texas in the framing of the laws for this great empire, 
and w-as distinguished by being the youngest member of these 
bodies. He had just been made judge of the Nacogdoches 
district, and the district judges formed the Supreme Court of 
the Republic. His marriage with Miss Anne Cleveland, took 
place at the plantation of Colonel Wharton, near Brazoria, 
and at that earl^' time was considered a resplendent affair. 
The trousseau of the bride was ordered from New Orleans, 
the metropolis of the South, and the greater part of the 
supper came from the same source. The young wife entered 
on her new life determined to share its privations with her 
husband. His position was a laborious one, and compelled 
him to ride over a territory vast enough for a good sized 
State, that too, on horseback, for there w'ere few" carriages 
in the country, and no roads passable, even if a vehicle had 
been obtainable. For two years she rode over this district, 
sharing all the hardships of life in a frontier country, 
with few of the surroundings of civilization. Then she 
made her home in Nacogdoches, where her first child a 
daughter, Cornelia Branch, was born, in the home of General 
and Mrs. Rusk. Two years were spent there, when her hus- 
band decided to resign the judgeship, the pay being inade- 
quate to the support of a wife and child, and they left Nacog- 
doches, for Liberty County, where the remainder of her days 
were spent. 



48 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Mrs. Branch was a woman of remarkable mind, well stored 
with knowledge of a kind not often found in women of her 
time, thoroughly posted in the political history of the Re- 
public of Texas, and of the United States, into which the 
Republic was adopted. She died at the close of the Civil 
War, between the North and the South, and will be remem- 
bered for her kindness to the soldiers of the Confederacy, 
for whom she spent all of her available means. She left four 
daughters and a son: Cornelia Branch, Elizabeth Wortley 
Branch, Wharton Branch, Olive Branch, and Judith Anne 
Branch. 

Mrs. Willard Richardson. — On the 6th of June, 1849, 
near Stateburg, South Carolina, Louisa Blanche Murrell 
was married to Willard Richardson, editor and proprietor 
of the Galveston News. The bride's father was James Wil- 
liam Murrell, and her mother, Louisa Sumter, the grand- 
daughter of Gen. Thomas Sumter, of Revolutionary fame. 

Mrs. Richardson was thus a lineal descendant, in the 
maternal line, of one of the brilliant heroes of American his- 
tory. Her mother was a woman of vigorous energy, attrac- 
tive personality, and broad culture in the learning of her day. 
These qualities so essential in a leader, seem to have inspired 
the course and the duties of her life. She became a teacher of 
the young of her sex, combining in her curriculum, letters, 
science, domestic economy, and social ethics. In this voca- 
tion, pursued during several generations, she achieved results 
whose benefits can never cease to be felt in the cultured circles 
of her native section. 

In this school was ]\Irs. Richardson educated, and thus, 
through both inherited and acquired powers, was she pre- 
pared for the life work, whatever it might be, to which she 
was destined. 

Immediately after her marriage, as above related, she 
embarked with her husband for their future home in Gal- 
veston. 

Willard Richardson was, for many years, editor and pro- 
prietor of the Galveston News, a newspaper, then as now. 





s^"*^ 



MRS. WILLARD RICHARDSON. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 49 

of commanding influence in the social and political afifairs of 
the State. The press of Texas had, up to that time, strug- 
gled along, pari passu, with the patriots and pioneers of 
early days. The first printing office was established at 
Nacogdoches in 1819, by the Supreme Council of the provi- 
sional government, created by Gen, James Long, and his 
followers. The first permanent newspaper was the Tele- 
graph, founded at San Felipe in 1835 ; it retreated with the 
Texan army to Harrisburg, where its material was destroyed 
by the enemy; it reappeared at Columbia; in the vicissitudes 
that followed, it made other moves, yet in all its peregrina- 
tions rendered valiant service in the cause of the people. 
In 1840 newspapers were published in nearly a dozen towns, 
and, at the date of which we are writing, the press had 
become a factor of no small power in the direction of public 
affairs in Texas. 

Mr. Richardson also compiled and pubUshed annually, 
from 1857 to 1873, the Texas Almanac, a compendium of 
general information vastly more important than might be 
inferred from its modest title ; it was also, in the days of its 
publication, the vade-mecum of the average Texas inquirer 
and, apart from some unavoidable historical inaccuracies, 
was the repository of much that was valuable and nowhere 
else to be found. 

Mr. Richardson's associations were largely with the lit- 
erary men and women of the country, and Mrs. Richardson, 
with the strong bias of her culture, naturally drifted into 
this current of her husband's life, and throughout its course 
gave constant, efficient and graceful help. As a helpmeet 
she was also conspicuous for the orderly and economical 
management of her domestic affairs. She thus, both as 
housewife and scholar, contributed to the building of the 
castle of her new home in the distant West. 

Mrs. Richardson has always been quiet in her manners, 
retiring in her habits, calm, but impressive in conversation, 
and deeply religious in thought, utterance and act. She is 
united with the Episcopal Church, and, in the duties enjoined 
by that communion, finds ample employment for the exer- 

W. of T.— 4 



50 Prominent Women of Texas. 

cise of the best faculties of her nature. Her life has been 
singularly free from the noisy casualties that happen in 
almost every human experience; serene, unruffled and full 
of quiet work, it has given its most effective years to the 
cultivation of the highest virtues, and it is passing away to be 
remembered, with tenderness and love, for the richness and 
value of its fruit. 

Mrs. Richardson has had but one child, a daughter, who 
is the wife of Dr. H. P. Cooke. With them she lives; to their 
home she brings the culture and contentment, and to their 
fireside the cheerfulness, that blessed and adorned her own. 

Mrs. Virginia Hunt Dickens. — The women who have 
achieved the largest measure of greatness have been those 
whose lives were dedicated to human progress, and the wo- 
men in history whose memories are most precious are those 
through whose abounding knowledge of the divine testimo- 
nies, the world has been made better and its spiritual life ex- 
alted above the selfishness inherent in the human heart. 
Whether these messengers of gladness come, like Huldah, to 
reveal the law to priests and prophets and scribes, or, like 
the humbler workers, to labor with the toilers in the moral 
vineyard ; whether their lessons are taught through inspired 
precept or through the holier inspiration of example; they 
are all and equally the anointed teachers commissioned by 
the Father to His children. Of such was Mrs. Virginia Hunt 
Dickens. 

In an obituary published at the time of her death in 
January, 1894, the writer said of her: "If love and justice 
and duty; if tenderness and compassion; if humility and 
patience and forbearance; if the unrestrained love of God 
and man and truth ; and the faithful practice of holy pre- 
cepts under all conditions; if these constitute the ideal of 
the Christian's life, then she lived it in its absolute perfec- 
tion." Such a tribute conveys infinitely more than it expres- 
ses ; it awakens in the mind of the thoughtful a train of 
inference that leads from the tree to its fruit, from the body 
in the tomb to its resurrected virtue in the lives of the living. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 51 

Mrs. Dickens was the daughter of Wilkins Jones Hunt and 
Lucy Howel Avery. She was born in Virginia, February 23, 
1826, and at the age of sixteen was married to Samuel 
Dickens, of Tennessee. On the occasion of this marriage the 
same ceremony united a sister of the bride with a brother of 
the bridegroom, and it is further remarkable that these two 
famihes of Hunt and Dickens were afterwards still more 
closely united by the marriage of two other sisters with two 
other brothers. Mrs. Dickens' grandfather, Col. William 
Avery, was an officer in the revolutionary army under 
Washington ; was taken prisoner and carried to England 
where he was paroled, and, pending arrangements for his 
exchange and return to America;, he married. From him 
is descended a lineage as proud as any that adorns the ranks 
of America's democratic peerage. 

After her marriage, Mrs. Dickens removed with her hus- 
band to Arkansas. During the Civil War they sought tempo- 
rary refuge in Texas, from which they returned to their home 
where they continued to live until the death of Mr. Dickens, 
in 1867. The children born in this marriage were four sons, 
who died in infancy, and one daughter, Lizzie, who still 
survives. After her bereavement, Mrs. Dickens moved to 
Mississippi, where her daughter married Thomas W.Johnson 
of Paris, Texas. To that city she went with her daughter 
and son-inJaw, and with them made her home until her 
death, January 4, 1894. 

Mrs. Dickens transmitted to her daughter the noble 
instincts that distinguished her through life, and, by cease- 
less care, she unfolded and enriched her priceless gifts. 
Thus endowed and thus trained, the daughter reflects the 
mother's life in her own ; temperance, relief, charity, reform, 
are the themes of her daily thought, the objects of her con- 
stant toil ; and especially in the field of prison work assigned 
her by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, she reveals 
the high purpose that directs and inspires her sleepless 
energy. In speaking of her mother as a potent influence in 
her life, she says, that what the mother of Frances E. Willard 
was to the great temperance reformer, her mother was to 



52 Prominent Women of Texas. 

her in the choice and direction of her life work. Not only 
did Mrs. Dickens thus inspire her daughter with the zeal of 
a reformer, but, as long as she lived, was a co-worker with 
her in achieving the reformation. No toil, no exposure, no 
discomfort could obstruct her path to scenes of distress, 
and no desire of personal ease or worldly gain could abate a 
farthing from the tenth of her revenue that she yearly gave 
to the poor. She fed the hungry, clothed the naked, nursed 
the sick, visited the prisons, comforted the afflicted, encour- 
aged the hopeless, and pleaded with the weak and the fallen 
wherever they could be found ; and thus she passed her years 
in the midst of the wrecks and ruins of human life. 

In her religious beliefs, Mrs. Dickens was as broad and gen- 
erous as in her charities. Herself a member of the Baptist 
Church, she recognized in every other communion the same 
endeavor to attain the truth, the same spirit of reverence 
toward God, and the same compassionate love for all His 
human creatures. Such universal philanthropy, and such 
sublime faith in the efficacy of good works are, as the word 
of the law, a lamp unto the feet, and a light unto the path 
to those who come after her. 

CHAPTER V. 

MRS. WM. B. JAQUES— MRS. GEO. W, FULTON, SR.— MRS. RICH- 
ARDSON SCURRY — MRS. SOPHRONIA ELLIS CONE — MRS. 
S. L. WEATHERFORD — MRS. G. B. CLEVELAND. 



Mrs. Wm. B. Jaques, nee Miss Catherine L. Bowne, 
was a granddaughter of Gen. James Morgan, of the Revolu- 
tion, and a gTeat granddaughter of General Provost (Ready 
Money). In 1836 Mr. and Mrs. Jaques were residents of 
the City of Mexico. At that period Stephen F. Austin, who 
had gone to Mexico with, a memorial to the federal govern- 
ment, had been released from his long confinement and be- 
came the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Jaques, remaining with them 
until the former took him in disguise to Texas. Through 
this association and influence Mr. Jaques eventually moved 



Prominent Women of Texas. 53 

his family to San Antonio, where they endured many changes 
and trials incident to the unsettled condition of the State. 
Their home was burned by Vasquez,in 1842, and again when 
Woll invested the city Mr. Jaques was placed under guard 
and would have been shot but for the intervention of Colonel 
Carasco, of General AVolFs staff. On account of favors pre- 
viously rendered, Colonel Carasco entertained kindly feelings 
for him. When the Santa Fe prisoners were taken Mrs. 
Jaques wrote notes which she secreted in waiters containing 
food which she prepared and sent to the prisoners, and in 
this way they were informed as to the movements of the 
enemy. In the Indian conflict of 1839 she rendered all the 
aid possible. During the Confederate war her house was 
kept open for the reception of soldiers who were in need, for 
though she had many ties in the North, she was free from 
sectional narrowness. Mrs. Jaques was a devoted Christian, 
greatly beloved and frequently called the mother of the poor. 
The anxieties concerning her husband's probable fate and 
the trials endured left their record on her luxuriant hair, which 
in one night changed from black to silvery white. The 
blanched locks were not suited to her youthful face but she 
wore them as a veteran wears his sacred scars, until the close 
of her life in 1866. Her death was the immediate result of 
her untiring efforts in behalf of those who suffered from the 
cholera epidemic. One daughter, Mrs. Laura L. Cupples, of 
San Antonio, survives her. 

Mrs. Geo. W. Fulton, Sr. — The honor which encircled 
the name of Gov. Henry Smith received added luster from his 
second wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Gillette. It 
is said that many of the traits for which she was distin- 
guished were transmitted to her accomplished daughter, Mrs. 
Geo. W. Fulton. Governor Smith was descended from one 
of the old and patriotic families of Virginia. They were 
noted for courage, and the many thrilling Indian experiences 
through which they passed have been made the theme of 
song and story. Mrs. Fulton, nee Miss Harriett Gillette 
Smith, was born in Missouri in 1822, and from this State 



54 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Governor Smith moved his family to a country home in the 
jurisdiction of Brazoria, where he maintained a high and 
honorable position, giving valuable aid in building up the 
new State. Here Harriett's early days were passed in a fron- 
tier country, though her father's house was a favorite resort 
Avith the patriots, who met to consult as to the future, to re- 
view their condition, to consider their resources. Among 
others. Col. Geo. W. Fulton came from Vincennes, Indiana, 
in 1836, commanding a splendid company of volunteers and 
remaining in the service until the final disbandment of the 
army. In 1840, this scholarly gentleman married the 
daughter of Governor Smith. She was noted for her taste, 
culture and executive ability. Prosperity was the result of 
their intelligent efforts, and having acquired large landed in- 
terests in southwestern Texas, they permanently located on 
Aransas Bay. The unstress of a palatial residence, Mrs. 
Fulton still performs the graceful duties of her home in a 
manner becoming the dignity of the State to whose fortunes 
she has been devoted. Colonel Fulton's demise occurred in 
1893. He had reached an advanced age. The death of the 
eldest son, Hon. Geo. W. Fulton, Jr., in 1895, terminated a 
brief and brilliant career. He was a graduate of Harvard 
University, and had occupied many positions of trust. The 
sur\dving sons and daughters are Mrs. Eldridge G. Holden, 
James C. Fulton, Mrs. Charles M. Holden. 

Mrs. Richardson Scurry, nee Miss Evantha Foster, 
came with her parents and other relatives to Texas in 1832. 
She spent the greater part of her life here and in the early 
days experienced the vicissitudes and adventures of the pio- 
neer settlers. The Fosters were kinsmen of the Waller, 
Wharton, Groce and Lipscomb families, being closely related 
to Judge Abner Lipscomb, and others well known as impor- 
tant factors in the making of the Texas of to-day. 

Miss Foster, when quite youthful, attracted the attention 
of the young staff officer, Lieut. R. A. Scurry, of Gen. Sam 
Houston's army, when she with her parents and three hun- 
dred families were encamped on the banks of the Trinity 



Prominent Women of Texas. 55 

River, at the village of Cahuta, where the army of General 
Houston passed them. This event, so well known in Texas 
histoiy as the "Runaway Scrape," was always spoken of by 
Mrs. Scurry as "the first historical event of her life." It was 
so considered by her, probably, because it was a verification 
of " Love in the tempest most alive will ever deem that pearl 
the best he finds beneath the stormiest water." But it was 
not until after the battle of San Jacinto was fought and the 
independence of Texas gained that Mr. Scurry again met and 
recognized in Miss Foster, now a young lady, the httle girl that 
he had seen as one of the horseback riders in " The Runaway 
Scrape," on the banks of the Trinity River. It was in Wash- 
ington when Miss Foster, under the chaperonage of Mrs. 
Sarah Wharton, visited that city, that she met a second 
time Mr. Scurry. He was then a member of Congress and 
speaker of the House of Representatives. Later he became 
the law partner of General Rusk, and afterwards of Pinckney 
Henderson. Previously he had been the first district judge 
of the new State, and while holding this position was elected 
to Congress from the Eastern District, when Texas had only 
two congressional districts. In 1853 Mrs. Scurry accom- 
panied her husband to Washington. Previously she had 
resided in Clarkesville and Houston. Her recent, much la- 
mented demise occurred in Dallas, where she had lived many 
years with her talented daughter, Mrs. Kate Scurry TerreU. 

Among the prominent women of Texas Mrs. Scurry's name 
demands a conspicuous place, not only for the exalted posi- 
tion socially which she filled and adorned, but also because 
of her long residence in this State, first, when it was under 
the rule of Mexico, then as an independent Republic, after- 
wards as the Lone Star State when it was annexed to our 
Federal Union, during the stormy days of the Confederate 
States, during the still more perilous period of reconstruc- 
tion and again under the United States Government. 

Mrs. Sophronia Ellis Cone. — Prominent among the 
early settlers of the city of Houston, Texas, was Mrs. So- 
phronia Ellis Cone, the daughter of the Rev. William Ellis, 



56 Prominent Women of Texas. 

a well-known and highly esteemed Baptist clergyman, who 
removed from Virginia to Georgia in 1812. He resided near 
Milledgeville, his daughter being then about five years of age. 

In 1823 she was married to Mr. William Orrington Work. 
By a second matrimonial alliance in 1827, she became the 
wife of Dr. Henry Hale Cone, of Bolton, Connecticut, a ph^-- 
sician, and a graduate of medical colleges in New Haven and 
Charleston, South Carolina. Her husband, Doctor Cone, par- 
ticipated in the siege and capture of San Antonio, and after- 
wards returned to Georgia. In 1839 he brought his family to 
the Republic of Texas and located at Houston, purchasing a 
residence on Rusk Street, which Mrs. Cone continuously occu- 
pied for more than half a century. 

For many years her home was literally the headquarters 
for all Presbyterian ministers who came to the city, and 
also for those of other denominations. She was one of the 
earliest communicants of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Houston, her membership dating from December, 1839. 

A prominent and active member, a leader in measures in- 
tended to advance the prosperity of the church, she was ever 
ready to encourage and assist the needy, and those who were 
in afiliction or distress. Among the early residents of Hous- 
ton, there are those who will recall the untiring zeal with 
which Mrs. Cone sought out those to whom she could bring 
relief or administer comfort. Often she has been seen in the 
remote portions and suburbs of the then young and scat- 
tered village, going alone on errands of mercy, providing 
food and nourishment to the poor and suffering, giving Chris- 
tian encouragement, and distributing religious literature. 
Mrs. Cone was emphatically a Home Missionary in its broad- 
est sense; prominent and active in ladies' benevolent societies, 
a great reader, a student of the Bible and thoroughly con- 
versant with its contents. She was a fine vocalist, and 
leader in the church choir services, and active at all times in 
Sunday School work, mothers' society and other Christian 
meetings. 

Mrs. Cone was prepossessing in appearance, possessed 
great force of character, much personal magnetism, an 



Prominent Women of Texas. 57 

amiable disposition, and rare intelligence. In 1895 her spirit 
passed calmly and peacefully to its reward. She had re- 
mained a widow since 1858. Two of the four children consti- 
tuting the family when they came to Texas died some years 
ago, one in Texas, and one at Yale College, New Haven, Con- 
necticut. Two daughters survive her, Mrs. James T. D. Wil- 
son, with whom Mrs. Cone resided at the time of her demise, 
and Mrs. Wm. Harvey Sellers. 

Mrs. S. L. Weatherford. — Rev. John Turner was the 
moderator of the Baptist Association at the time of his 
death. He had taken an active part in the organization of 
the Baptist Church at Weatherford and remained its pastor 
for seven years. The Turner family were origin ally from Polk 
County, Tennessee, and lived near Weatherford previous to 
the location of the town site. In 1857 Rev. John Turner's 
daughter. Miss Margaret, married Mr. S. L. Weatherford and 
it was from a branch of this family that the town subse- 
quently received its name. At this period a vast wilderness 
stretched westward beyond the advancing march of civiliza- 
tion, and here on the border where military companies were 
formed as a defense against the depredations of the Indians, 
a fort was located. During the Civil War this fort was occu- 
pied by Mr. and Mrs. Weatherford and a number of other 
families. Mr. Weatherford enlisted in the frontier service 
and was often absent on long and dangerous scouting expe- 
ditions and his wife thus shared the scenes of western adven- 
ture. Though possessing a frail physique she was a fearless 
rider, and an excellent shot, while her calmness and presence 
of mind were of essential service during those trying situa- 
tions. She is the devoted mother of seven children. Her 
home is now in Weatherford. 

Mrs. G. B. Cleveland. — Among the early settlers 
mentioned by Maj. John Henry Brown in his " History of 
Dallas County " is Mr. Jacob Baccus, who came from Green 
County, Illinois, to Texas, in 1845. His daughter, Mrs. 
Cleveland came with her parents who located in Dallas 



58 Prominent Women of Texas. 

County. Her father's interests were agricultural, and the early 
years of her life were passed amid rural surroundings enliv- 
ened by the exciting scenes incident to frontier life. By her 
first marriage she became the wife of Mr. Garland A. Martin 
of Collin County. Her second husband, Mr. G. B. Cleveland, 
a Confederate veteran, is engaged in the mercantile business 
in Bowie, Texas, where they permanently reside. Mrs. Cleve- 
land is a member of the Baptist Church. She is well pre- 
served and recounts many interesting reminiscences of the 
early period. 

CHAPTER VI. 

MRS. CHARLES BRACHIS — MRS. MARGARET KERR BROWN — MRS. 

WM. JAR VIS RUSSELL — MRS. M. A. BRYAN — 

MRS. A. J. DIGNOWITY. 



Mrs. Charles Brachis exercised much influence in 
the primitive society of the State. She was the daughter of 
Mr. and Mrs. John M. Ashby, and by her first marriage be- 
came the wife of Bartholomew A. McClure. They came to 
Texas in 1851, and located near the town of Gonzales. Mr. 
McClure became prominent in the affairs of that section of 
the country, and was a participant in the Texas revolution. 
He was in the Blanco Valley Indian fight and many other 
engagements. Upon the retreat of General Houston from 
Gonzales in 1836, he camped one night at the McClure home- 
stead, and in the morning made a speech to the people 
beneath a live oak tree that is still standing in frrmt of 
the house. He warned the citizens of the danger of remain- 
ing in the locality, which resulted in the "run away " before 
the army of Santa Anna. Mrs. McClure made this journe}' 
accompanied by her two young sons and as the}^ followed 
the army she heard the firing of the guns in the battle of 
San Jacinto, at a locality known as Gregby's Bluff. Mrs. 
McClure saw the site of Houston surveyed ; at that time it 
contained one house, a new hut, and a number of tents. 

Mr. McClure's death occurred in 184 J , and several years 
later his widow became the wife of Mr. Charles Brachis, who 



Prominent Women of Texas. 59 

was prominent in the political affairs of the country. He 
was a man of fine mind. He represented Gonzales County in 
the legislature, was in the Mexican War, and died in 1889 
after a useful and well-spent life. 

Mr. and Mrs. Brachis have creditable representatives in 
their daughter, Mrs. H. H. Jones of Dilworth, and a grand- 
daughter, Mrs. Kennard of Gonzales. Mrs. Brachis had three 
sisters: Isabella became the wife of the late Gen. Henry E. 
McCulloch of Seguin; Fannie, wife of Maj. Rodorich Gillhorn 
of Bighill, Gonzales County; and Euphemia, wife of Maj. 
William King of Seguin. No one saw more of frontier life 
than Mrs. Brachis, and she became the chronicler of her own 
times. She inherited a number of slaves, and kept in a 
high state of cultivation several leagues of land and the 
farm on which she lived. She owned a comfortable home 
where she maintained a liberal hospitality. Faithful and 
warm in her friendships, kind and benevolent to the poor, 
she was a bright example of womanly virtues. Her superior 
mind and character commanded general respect and her 
practical knowledge of life fitted her for eminent usefulness. 
During her latter years she lived in rural seclusion and died 
at the age of eighty-three, October, 1894. 

Mrs. Margaret Kerr Brown was born near Danville, 
Kentucky, March 26, 1783. Her father, Rev. James Kerr, 
and her mother, Patience Wells, of Maryland, were descended 
from ancestors who were patriots in the Revolutionary War. 
Mr. Kerr, who was a Baptist minister, owned large agricul- 
tural interests, and at his hospitable home his daughter, in 
her girlhood, was accustomed to meet, as guests of her father, 
the veteran Gov. Isaac Shelby, the celebrated George Nich- 
olas, and the then youthful lawyer of Kentucky, Henry Clay. 
Through life she preserved mementoes of each, and also of 
Felix Grundy, Gen. George Clark, Daniel Boone, and many 
other men of famous reputation. In 1795, Margaret Kerr 
was married to Richard Jones, from Maryland, and in the 
fall of 1808 the entire family moved to St. Charles County, 
Missouri, to take possession of a grant of land acquired 



60 Peominent Women of Texas. 

from the Spanish government. There, in 1811, her father 
died, and the same year her husband was drowned in the 
Missouri River, leavinoj his young wife on a frontier exposed 
at any time to forays from Indians. She had with her three 
children: Maryland (afterwards Judge Maryland Jones, of 
Lavaca County, Texas); Sarah, who became the wife of Mr. 
John Jorden, and as his widow, lived many years in Lavaca 
County ; Mary, who married Mr. Clinton C. Draper, of Ash- 
ley, Missouri, and a nephew of her husband; and Richard 
Jones Hamilton, who became an eminent lawj^er and one 
of the founders of Chicago. 

In 1814, Mrs, Jones married Mr. Henry Stevenson 
Brown, of Madison County, Kentucky, both of whose grand- 
fathers, Col. Edward Brown and Col. Henry Stevenson, were 
officers in the Maryland line during the Revolutionary War 
of 1776. In the winter of 1819, Mr. and Mrs. Brown moved 
to Pike County, Missouri. 

Mr. Henry S. Brown came to Texas in 1824. Later Mrs. 
Brown came, and after her husband's death, settled on Mus- 
tang Creek, in what is now Lavaca County. From that time 
she became identified with all the trials of the then frontier 
of southwest Texas, a position she was well qualified to fill. 
Her mind was one of unusual strength and clearness, and her 
memory was remarkable. She was a great reader, and w^as 
gifted by nature as a physician and surgeon, which talent 
she cultivated when opportunity offered. Many times when 
there w^ere no physicians in that part of the country she per- 
formed difficult surgical operations. Skilled in the botany 
of the country, Mrs. Brown was enabled with little medicine 
to minister to the sick, often riding long distances on her 
missions of mercy, frequently taking the sick to her own 
home and nursing them back to health. 

Born of patriotic parents, and identified with Texas from 
1824, all Mrs. Brown's impulses were patriotic, as were 
those of her uncle. Dr. James Kerr, of Jackson County. Her 
farm lay on the only road that, in 1842, led from La Grange, 
on the Colorado, to Victoria, on the Guadalupe, so that in 
those exciting times, many of the volunteer soldiers passing 



Prominent Women of Texas. 61 

her house on their way to the scenes of action were cheered 
by her hospitahty, 

Mrs. Brown was ever the friend of those in distress, ever 
took the part of the oppressed, and when, on April 30, 1861, 
she died, full of Christian assurance, she having been for 
years an earnest member of the Baptist Church, it is no 
wonder that the entire community mourned. No one can 
read this brief sketch of Mrs. Brown without realizing that 
many of her characteristics were transmitted to her distin- 
guished son, Hon. John Henry Brown, the historian. 

Mrs. Wm. Jarvis Russell bore an important part in 
the State's early history. She was the daughter of Hon. 
Stilwell Headley, who was for twenty-eight consecutive years 
a member of the legislature of Kentucky. The family moved 
to Brazoria, Texas, where Miss Headley was married in 
1832 to Captain Russell, who was prominently identified with 
the struggles of Texas for independence. 

It was soon after their marriage that the strife between 
the colonists and the Mexican authorities began at Anahuac, 
at the mouth of the Trinity. Captain Russell was among the 
first to volunteer, and his gentle bride moulded for her hus- 
band a quantity of bullets, one of which Captain Russell fired 
at a Mexican soldier on picket duty — the first bullet fired by 
an American colonist against the soldiery of Mexico. A few 
days later, June 26, 1832, the famed battle of Velasco was 
fought, in which the commanders were Capts. John Aus- 
tin, William J. Russell and Henry S. Brown. A remarkable 
victory was won and the fort and garrison captured. The 
ladies of Brazoria, including Mrs. Russell, Mrs. William H. 
Wharton, Mrs. Josiah H. Bell, and others, gave the victors a 
cordial reception. 

Captain Russell was senator in the congress of the Repub- 
lic, first from their home in Brazoria, and after 1848, in Fa- 
yette County, where they had moved, and from which 
county he was sent to the legislature, and where he was 
elected chief justice of the county. They moved to Austin 
in 1871. 



62 Prominent Women of Texas. 

The life of Mrs. Kussell, with all its interesting- incidents, 
abounding: in acts of charity and evincing splendid woman- 
hood, would fill a volume. She died in Dallas, at the home 
of her son, Hon. Stilwell Russell, in 1890. She was at that 
time a member of the First Methodist Church of Dallas, 
and the pastor, referring to her death, wrote: 

"Those hands so calmly folded 

Above that pulseless breast, 
Are the ones that fearless molded, 

In this far, distant West, 
The first fleet bullet that was sped, 
Texas and liberty to wed. 

"And God has blessed His child; 

Blessed her with husband true 
And children's loving smile; 

And as the years swift flew, 
Apai't, the infant State she's seen 
Walk forth a radiant, peerless queen." 

Mrs. M. a. Bryan, the daughter of D. T. Fichett, was 
originally from Montgomery, Alabama. The family came 
to Columbia, Texas, in 1836, and their home was the first 
two-story residence erected in the town. It became the 
resort of those prominent in intellectual and political influ- 
ence, and was the scene of a banquet given in honor of 
Stephen F. Austin, upon his return from Mexico. Mrs. Bryan 
recalls the incidents of the occasion and of a memorable 
visit made in company with a number of ladies who called to 
see Santa Anna. He was at the time a prisoner in the home 
of Judge McKinstrie. She was in the "runaway scrape." 

Their party passed over the battle ground three days 
before the battle of San Jacinto. Later she was sent to 
Mobile, Alabama, where she entered the Springhill Seminary, 
an institution conducted by Madame George. Her early 
educational advantages resulted in the formation of a liter- 
ary taste, and in after years her superior culture added to 
the refining influences of her home, which is now in Houston. 
Mrs. Bryan contracted a youthful marriage and has long 
survived her husband, who was a dentist and a pioneer in 



Prominent Women of Texas. 63 

his profession. Her daughters are prominent in educational 
circles and add to the pleasure of her declining years. She is 
still remarkable for her energy and progressive thought ; is 
an active member of the Daughters of the Republic, who are 
at present engaged in improving the old battle ground of 
San Jacinto. This, it will be remembered, is the special work 
of the San Jacinto Chapter. 

Mrs. a. J. DiGNOWiTY was born in Wythe County, 

Virginia, in 1820. She was the eldest daughter of Francis 
McCann, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland. Her mother 
was Sarah Cramer, a native of Lancaster County, Pennsyl- 
vania, and niece of Congressman Cramer. Mr. McCann, was 
nine years old when he came to America, with his uncle, and 
settled in Baltimore, Maryland. When a young man he 
joined the United States army under Capt. Hale Hamilton, 
fought through the year of 1812, and served as Lieutenant 
in the battle of New Orleans, under Andrew Jackson. He 
hved in Little Rock, Arkansas, until 1842, when he moved to 
the headright given him for his services to his adopted 
country. Mrs. Dignowity's parents were strict Catholics, and 
she was educated at the convent of Loretto in Louisville, 
Kentucky. In her childhood and girlhood she traveled ex- 
tensively through the wilds of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, and Arkansas. She was 
greatly interested in the study of medicine, though women 
at that period w^ere not allowed to practice. She studied 
under Dr. J. Coombs, of Mississippi, and removing to Little 
Rock, continued to study under Doctors Tucker and Prayther, 
of Arkansas. Meeting Dr. Wm. Byrd Powell, then president 
of the Medical College of New Orleans, afterwards State 
geologist of Arkansas, she studied two years under his 
tutelage, the reform practice of medicine, Eclectic, then almost 
in its infancy. In 1843, she was married to Dr. A. M. Dig- 
no wity, a partner and friend of Doctor Powell. 

At the beginning of the Mexican War, 1846, Doctor Dig- 
no wity enlisted under Governor Yell, of Arkansas, as physi- 
cian, and came to San Antonio. Mrs. Dignowity remained in 



64 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Little Kock with her parents until December, 1846, when she 
joined her husband, with masses offered by Archbishop Byrns, 
and the prayers of the congregation for her safety' in that land 
of wars and desperadoes. When they arrived at the hotel in 
San Antonio, she found it was a jacal, with flat roof and 
dirt floors. All the houses were flat with tulle grass or mor- 
tar roofs, and grate w indows. Her husband was on duty at 
Mission Concepcion, where sixteen companies of soldiers were 
encamped around the city. When he returned to the hotel 
for dinner there were over thirty persons present at the table, 
and seven different languages were spoken. Mrs. Dignowity 
was the only American lady present. She was introduced 
to the beautiful Mrs. Glanton, Prince Solms, Don Castro, 
and several of the United States officers. The next day, and 
many following, she rode with her husband to the different 
camps to visit the sick. During that year several of the ladies 
formed a Spanish class; Doctor Winchell, w^ho had been pro- 
fessor in Santa Anna's family, teaching them. The authoress, 
Augusta Evans, then quite a young girl, was a member of 
this class. Mrs. Dignowity applied herself studiously. She 
visited some of the Spanish ladies, joined them at the church 
during their festivals and fiestas, visited the Pastores, and 
was much interested, with many others, in watching their 
devotion, and great display to the honor of the Senora 
Guadalupe, their great patroness. Later, when German 
immigrants began pouring into the city, she found it neces- 
sary to study the German language. 

There were frequent difficulties between the IMexicans and 
Indians, the latter coming to San Antonio to sell or barter 
their game, honey and bears' grease (the two latter being 
brought in hides on their Indian ponies). Dr. Dignowity was 
often called to attend to both adversaries at once ; he was 
constantly occupied during the day and often at night. 
Many patients were brought into the house— wounded soldiers 
from the Eio Grande and much of Mrs. Dignowity's time was 
consumed in caring for the sick and afflicted. At one period 
when an epidemic threatened the soldiers and immigrants, 
being well acquainted with the United States officers and the 



Prominent Women of Texas. 65 

Bishops who were there, many of them became her frequent 
guests; General Kearney, Doubleday, President Sam. Hous- 
ton, Pease, Archbishop Lamy, Rev. Anthony Bole, Odin, and 
many of the officers of early days. Gov, Yell, of Arkan- 
sas, she knew well; also, Gov. Sam. Houston. In days of 
peace they visited the Missions ; often, after Concepcion was 
used as a stable, Mrs. Dignowity greatly deplored this dese- 
cration and afterwards the vandalism of tourists in breaking 
off and taking away the lovely decorative work in the old 
Missions, that should have been held sacred as works of art, 
for they were not at that time in a dilapidated condition. 
Every flower, leaf, fruit, figure and face were in perfect preser- 
vation. After 1862 many families made their homes in and 
around the Missions, the grand old relics that are rapidly 
going to ruin. 

Dr. Dignowity was a strong Union man and at the begin- 
ning of the Civil War was exiled from San Antonio. The 
sons have always adhered to their father's principles. 

Mrs. Dignowity attended the sick and afflicted, of both 
North and South during the Civil War. Going to and from 
neighboring ranches they had many narrow escapes from 
the Indians. She has passed through two wars, and two 
sieges of the cholera. 

For the last twenty years, she has traveled extensively 
throughout the United States, and has found no State, or 
place, more desirable than Texas and San Antonio. She is 
surrounded by a large number of children and grandchildren 
and is happy in being useful to those she loves and who need 
her kindly offices. Though past the meridian of life, being 
seventy-five years of age, she attends to the business con- 
nected with her estate, and a few years ago when Mrs. Gen. 
D. S. Stanley entertained President Harrison at Fort Sam. 
Houston, Mrs. Dignowity was one of the reception commit- 
tee, adding grace and culture to the coterie of charming 
women assembled in honor of the occasion. 

Mrs. Dignowity is noted for her artistic taste and talent. 
From the judges of the International State Fair, and the 
State Art Association, she has received two gold medals for 

W. of T.— 5 



66 Prominent Women of Texas. 

art work and carving, one diploma, one honorable mention, 
and fifteen premiums from the different departments in San 
Antonio. 

CHAPTER VII. 

MRS. CHARLES FORDTRAN — MRS. SHAPLEY P. ROSS — 
MRS. JOHN J. LINN — MRS. JACOB C. DARST. 



Mrs. Charles Fordtran came from Detroit, Michigan, 
to Texas with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Brookfield, 
who were among the early pioneers of the State. Mrs. 
Brookfield, formerly Miss Laliet, the daughter of a French 
nobleman, w^as a lady of cultivation and accomplishments. 
Her intellectual gifts were transmitted to her daughter 
Almeida, whose mental faculties were developed in an atmos- 
phere of refined influences. She possessed a voice of excep- 
tional sweetness and it was her mother's care that it should 
be properly trained. Her marriage to Mr. Charles Fordtran 
occurred in 1834, and the remainder of her life, a period 
of fifty-three years, was passed in Austin County. Their 
home, near the town of Industry, was known as the Castle of 
Indolence, and at that time was considered an improved 
country seat. This abode was made charming by the cheer- 
ful disposition and genial kindness of its mistress, and here 
w^ere entertained a continual succession of visitors. Among 
other guests were Prince Solms, Count Joseph Boos-Wal- 
deck, and other gentlemen, who were identified with the 
romantic and chivalrous era of New Braunfels. In early life 
Mrs. Fordtran was noted for her beauty, elegant manners 
and social qualities, which gave her a ruling influence. She 
acted a nobler j)art in life than that of minister to its fleeting- 
pleasures, for she was charitable and freely gave to those in 
need, assistance and counsel. She enjoyed the solace of 
age to round out her experience and harmonize her char- 
acter. Her death occurred in 1887. Her husband, who has 
reached the age of ninety-five, survives her, and they have 
many descendants. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 67 

Mrs. Shapley P. Ross. — Among the remarkable women 
who have helped to lay the foundations of Texas, none have 
rendered more enduring service, or bequeathed to it a sturdier 
race of sons and daughters than Mrs. Shapley P, Ross. Her 
maiden name was Catharine Fulkerson, and she was born 
September 27, 1812, in St. Charles County, Missouri, where, 
at the age of seventeen, she was married to Capt. Shaplej' P. 
Ross. Soon after marriage the young couple moved to 
Iowa, then not yet admitted to Statehood, from which 
they emigTated to the Republic of Texas in 1840, and nine 
years later located in Waco, McLennan County, though, at 
that time, neither county nor town had been legally incor- 
porated. In these primitive wilds they first dwelt in tents, 
where they suffered the privations and were exposed to the 
perils that are the usual incidents of the pioneer's life. Other 
immigrants arrived and the little community was strength- 
ened and houses were built, where, in comfort and security, 
all could enjoy the scene of their brave enterprise till they 
should reclaim from desolation and savage hordes the broad 
and fertile lands in which they had cast their lot. There 
Mrs. Ross was ever vigilant in the nurture of the little ones 
born to her charge, there she implanted in their tender 
minds the quaUties that adorn the world's most vigorous 
States, and there she reared a race of more than Roman 
virtue. After these labors were over and after nearly half a 
century of earnest, noble work, it was there that in Septem- 
ber, 1886, the faithful mother and public benefactor passed 
away to the reward she had earned. 

Of the nine children she had borne, eight were living at the 
time of her death: Mrs. George Barnard, Mrs. Margaret 
Harris, Mrs. Kate Padgitt, Mrs. Pat. Fitzwilhams, Col. P. 
F. Ross, Gen. (afterwards Governor) L. S. Ross, Capt. R. S. 
Ross, and Mr. W. H. Ross, all of Waco, except Mrs. Fitz- 
Williams, who then resided at Los Angeles, California. For 
these children their venerated mother felt as lofty a pride as 
did the historic mother for the Gracchi she had given to her 
country. In their advancement she rejoiced with a joy 
known only to the maternal heart that is stirred with the 



68 Prominent Women of Texas. 

rich recompense of successful work, of well requited toil. It 
is a pleasant reflection that she lived to realize that her son, 
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, was to be honored by his people 
with the highest ofiice in their gift ; it is pathetic to reflect 
that the hand of death could not have been stayed till with 
her mortal eyes she could have witnessed the crowning scene 
of his promotion. 

Mrs. John J. Linn, one of the pure and noble women of 
colonial Texas, was married in 1834 and began keeping 
house in Victoria, where, fifty years later, she closed her 
eventful and useful life. She was ever a devoted patriot and 
greatly beloved for her many excellent characteristics, her 
refinement and rare intelligence. She was justly the recipient 
of the almost idolatrous devotion of her children, and there 
are many veterans who yet survive to bless her memory. 
Her oldest son, Capt. Charles C. Linn, served with distinc- 
tion throughout the Civil War, and John Joseph Linn, Jr., 
died while stationed with Colonel Buchell's regiment at 
Brownsville. One daughter. Miss Annie, and a son, Hon, 
Edward D. Linn, live at Victoria. Mr. W. F. Lian resides 
at Wharton. 

Mrs. Jacob C. Darst, zjee Margaret Hughes, was born 
in East Tennessee. She subsequently moved to Missouri and 
in 1831 came with her family to Texas and located on the 
Guadalupe River, eighteen miles above Gonzales. She died 
in Gonzales in 1846 and is remembered for her great kind- 
ness of heart and the remarkable courage she exhibited 
during the dark days preceding the battle of San Jacinto 
and the subsequent Indian raids. Her husband was killed 
at the Alamo and her stepdaughter, Mrs. Crosby, whom she 
had cared for from infancy, was killed by the Indians in the 
Plum Creek Battle. Mr. Crosby reached the side of his wife 
just in time to soothe with endearing offices her last 
moments. Their infant had been previously killed near 
Linnville and thrown on the roadside. Mrs. Crosby's 
brother, Mr. D. S. H. Darst, of Gonzales, was one of 




MRS. REBECCA J. FISHER. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 69 

the captives and was forced to witness the tragic fate 
of his sister, though powerless to prevent or avenge her 
death. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

INDIAN EXPERIENCES. 

MRS. OKCENETH FISHER — MRS. BABB — MRS. EDWARD SHEGOGf 
—MRS. DANIEL MENASCO. 



Any account of the prominent women of Texas would be 
incomplete if in it we did not find tradition, sometimes, 
linking the names of some of those now occupying prominent 
positions, who, as little children, suffered in the stormy days 
of the border warfare, waged upon the frontiersmen by the 
Indians, Comanches, Apaches and Kiowas. 

The massacres in which the parents of those little ones 
were martyred were perpetrated by the very Indians who 
were fed, blanketed and armed by the United States Govern- 
ment, and given homes protected by United States troops in 
the Indian reservation territory of a paternal government, 
which in its sentimentahty over its "poor Indian" citizens, 
neglected its duties to its own blood and race. For if the 
Indians were citizens, the early settlers of Texas were almost 
entirely immigrants of whites from the United States. 

This is the view which the Texas press of those da^^s, and 
also of a later date, took of the tragic events, of which a few 
are related in this chapter. 

A child survivor of those days of blood and cruelty, a 
heroine who came near being a little martyr, is now one 
of the prominent women of Texas. 

Mrs. Orceneth Fisher. — The name of Mrs. Orceneth 
Fisher is intimately connected with that of her husband, the 
Rev. Orceneth Fisher, D.D., in "The History of Methodism 
on the Pacific Coast," as an active cooperator in church and 
benevolent work. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. 



70 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Johnston Gillelancl, who were murdered by the Comanche 
Indians in Refugio County, in 1840. 

On both the paternal and maternal side, Rebecca J. Gille- 
land — Mrs. Fisher — is of noble and distinguished ancestry ; 
and nobly have she and her brother, the late Wilham Mc- 
Calla Gilleland, the Texas poet, sustained the time honored 
traditions of their families. 

A correspondent of the Galveston News, in a late issue, 
relates substantially the circumstances of the tragic fate of 
Mr. and Mrs. Gilleland, the capture of their children, and their 
rescue. 

Just as the sun was setting, the Gilleland family, who 
were then living at the Mexican village, Don Carlos ranch, 
were startled by the war whoop of Indians. Before any at- 
tempt could be made for defense, the savages rushed into the 
house and killed both Mr. and Mrs. Gilleland, leaving them 
weltering in their blood. They tore the children from the 
agonized grasp of their dying mother, whose last prayer was 
for the safety of her little ones. 

When the Indians had completed their bloody work they 
mounted their horses and fled, taking the children with 
them. One of the band took little William on his horse ; an 
Indian woman, supposed to be the wiie of the chief, took 
charge of the little girl. The men threatened the children that 
they would kill them by cutting off their hands and feet if 
they did not stop crying. The chief's wife rebuked them, and 
pressing the little Rebecca to her bosom silenced the men; 
but she could not avert their murderous intentions. As they 
fled, they were hotly pursued, and finding the children an in- 
cumbrance they attempted to kill them as soon as they 
reached the timber land. They pierced the little boy through 
the side of his body mth a lance or a long knife, and striking 
the little girl a heavy blow on the head, left them both for 
dead in the dark, dense forest. 

As soon as the children recovered and reahzed what had 
happened, little Rebecca, then only seven years old, knelt 
down and prayed their Heavenly Father to take care of 
them and guide them to safety. She then took her little 



Prominent Women of Texas. 71 

brother in her arms and carried him as best she could, stop- 
ping every few moments to rest. Praying still, these poor 
little babes in the forest wandered on, and soon reached the 
edge of the prairie. Here a new terror assailed them for they 
saw a troop of horsemen, which they thought were Indians. 
They fled back into the forest, but ere long their fears were 
turned to joy, for they heard the kind tones of the wood 
rangers who had been detailed to guard the timber, and others 
who had gone in pursuit of the Indians, These men reassured 
the little ones and tenderly lifted them into their saddles. 

The children were taken into the soldiers' camp, where 
they received every tender attention and sympathy from 
Gen, Albert Sidney Johnston and General, afterwards Presi- 
dent, Lamar. 

When it was practicable these gentlemen put the children 
in the hands of parties who took them to their kindred and 
friends. 

The little William, after an almost miraculous recovery 
from his wound, became one of the most distinguished men 
and popular poets of Texas. He married the daughter of the 
Hon, Kenneth Anderson, Vice President of the Republic of 
Texas; but he and his wife have both died within the last few 
years. The little girl, William Gilleland's sister, after finisli- 
ing her education at Rutersville College, married the Reverend 
Doctor Fisher, a distinguished divine, a prominent Mason 
and Odd Fellow, and the chaplain of the two last sessions of 
congress of the Republic, 

California and Oregon were the special fields of labor of Doc- 
tor and Mrs. Fisher, In the history of Methodism referred to 
previously, there is an account of Mrs, Fisher's heroism and 
presence of mind saving the life of an innocent man, a minis- 
ter, upon whom a fanatical mob crying, "hang him! hang 
him ! " were rushing. 

Thousands of people, men, women and children, were on 
the camp ground and at the stand waiting for the eleven 
o'clock service. While the confusion and excitement reigned, 
women fainting, children running and screaming, and op- 
posing factions, who were armed, were about to engage in 



72 Prominent Women of Texas. 

the wildest battle, Mrs. Fisher sprang over the benches and 
faced the leader of the mob and ordered him in calm tones of 
conscious power to listen to her. 

For a moment he looked into her resolute face, then be- 
came silent, and listened to her exhortations. He and the 
other desperadoes were subdued by her words ; and thus she 
averted what would have been a bloody battle, at the risk 
of her life, for she was surrounded by armed men, and if a 
single shot had been fired she would have been in the midst 
of the fray. 

Mrs. Fisher has been residing in Austin for more than 
twenty years, and there she is loved and revered for her ex- 
alted Christian character, and admired and respected for her 
intellectual attainments. She is esteemed throughout her 
native State, and has been the associate friend and cotem- 
porary of a large number of the most distinguished men and 
women of the century. Among these are Lady Franklin, 
Miss Frances Willard, Mrs. James K. Polk, Commodores 
Stockton and Garrison, Hon. Alexander H. Stevens, Presi- 
dent and Mrs. Jefferson Davis, Judge Jackson of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. She is now the honored and 
appropriate president of the William Travis Chapter of the 
Daughters of the Republic of Texas, having held previously 
numerous positions of the same rank in religious and social 
organizations, over which she has always presided with tact 
and grace. ' 

Mrs. Babb. — After the close of the Civil War Texas was 
again at the mercy of the Indians until her readmission into 
the Union, in 1872. During the interval in which this border 
warfare was renewed, the atrocities committed by the Indi- 
ans were of a darker character, if possible, than ever. Two 
little children, a boy and a girl. Dot and Bianca Babb, and 
their father, are the survivors of a mother whose name should 
never be forgotten in the annals of the frontier martyrs of 
this State. 

In June, 1867, Mr. Babb left his home in Wise County to 
go to Dallas, the nearest market town. As no incursions 



Prominent Women of Texas. 73 

had been made by either Indians or Mexicans for a longtime, 
he felt no fears for his family, and peace reigned for some 
days after his departure. One morning the two eldest chil- 
dren, who were playing about the door, directed their mother's 
attention to a number of men on the prairie. She instantly 
recognized them as Indians, who were approaching the house 
at a rapid gallop. Before she could get her children into the 
house and bar the door, the savages dashed in upon them, 
dragged her baby from her arms, dashed it upon the floor 
with death-dealing force, and seizing her by the hair, forced 
her head backward and cut her throat. 

This deed accomplished, they seized the children. Dot and 
Bianca, and leaving the poor mother with her dead baby be- 
side her, started for the broad plains of the West, where they 
had their abiding places, and where, to quote from a Texas 
paper of that date, "they were fed on government beef, wrap- 
ped in the soft embrace of a government blanket, and armed 
with a government rifle and ammunition." 

The sufferings of the children on that journey were intense 
to a harrowing degree, but when they reached the reservation 
they were treated with tolerable kindness, for the object of 
their capture was simply to extort money for their ransom 
from the Texans. 

For years the father sought his children, going from one 
United States agency to another. Finally, after exhausting 
nearly all his resources, he found and ransomed them, and 
took them to Wisconsin. There they remained until a few 
years ago. Mr. Babb returned to this State, and when the 
children came to Texas they met him where their noble mother 
had been murdered and where they had been captured. Then it 
was a wilderness; now itis a populous and prosperous region. 
Mr. Babb still lives in Wise County, Texas. Bianca mar- 
ried a w^orthy gentleman, and is living near Henrietta; 
while Dot, at Wichita Falls, is a successful cattle man. 

Mrs. Edward Shegog. — Brief must be the account of 
the saddest of all the sad stories of massacre and outlaw 
occurring in the fateful period "after the war," and previous 



74 Prominent Women of Texas. 

to the readmission of Texas to the floors of the United States 
Congress. 

It was in 1878, in Cooke County, that the Comanches and 
Kiowas perpetrated one of the darkest deeds that stains the 
pages of Texas history, and it will serve to show the dangers 
to which the pioneers were exposed. 

On the third of January of that year the people living in 
the vicinity of where the village of Rosstown now stands 
were startled by the arrival of a courier from the settlement 
in Montague County, who informed them that a large 
band of Indians were coming in that direction. Mr. Daniel 
Menasco, with his wife, two children and his aged father, all 
lived together in a small house on Clear Creek. That morn- 
ing the two little girls, May and Lizzie, the pride of the whole 
settlement, had been sent on a visit to Mrs. Edward Shegog, 
their aunt, who lived on the opposite side of the stream. 
Daniel Meuasco had gone out on the prairie to look after his 
cattle. As soon as Mr. Menasco, Sr. , heard the terrifying new' s 
of the Indian raid, he left his son's wife and hurried across 
the stream to bring his grandchildren and his daughter to his 
son's house. They all started back in haste, bringing Mrs. 
Shegog's baby who was only a few month's old. Just as 
they reached the crossing on Clear Creek the Indians rushed 
upon them, killing and scalping the elder Mr. Meuasco, and 
making prisoners of the children and Mrs. Shegog. 

In the meantime, while the main body of the Indians 
remained in charge of the prisoners, the others swept down 
on Mrs. Menasco's house. The heroic little woman had closed 
all the windows and doors except the front entrance. In 
that she stood, shot gun in hand, averting them from their 
course; for Indians are naturally cowardly and rarely 
attack a closed house or an armed foe that faces them. Mrs. 
Menasco was, of course, ignorant of her father-in-law's fate 
and the capture of her children and sister-in-law. 

The band passed on, joined the other party and made 
for the reservation. As they were crossing Blocker Creek, 
about a mile above Gainesville, on the Rosstown road, Mrs. 
Shegog's baby began to cry. The Indians ordered her to 



Prominent Women of Texas. 75 

silence it. She could not, and then one of the wretches struck 
it, and another took it away from her. He turned off from 
her, and when she next saw her baby they had killed it, and 
it was lying on the ground where they had thrown it. Mrs. 
Shegog then lost all consciousness, and the Indians, proba- 
bly finding they could not carry her with them, left her to 
perish in the woods. She was vaguely conscious of being 
pushed from her horse. The horrors of that awful night no 
one can tell or even faintly imagine. The next morning she 
was found in a half demented condition at the door of a Mr. 
Samuel Doss, and the family thought at first that she was an 
insane woman. They led her into the house and found that 
it was Mrs. Shegog. She did not know how she reached 
there, or what had become of her little nieces. 

Daniel Menasco, almost wild with grief, sought his children 
everywhere. He went to all the Indian agencies, hoping to 
find and ransom them, but in vain. Mrs. Shegog's baby was 
found where the Indians had killed it. The fate of little May 
and Lizzie Menasco was not revealed until the spring or early 
summer, when their skeletons were discovered and rec- 
ognized. The Indians had either killed or abandoned the 
children, for a blizzard came up the night they were cap- 
tured, and the supposition forced upon the settlement was 
that the savages, finding it difficult or impossible to keep the 
little creatures from freezing, had abandoned them to their 
fate. These are only three of the many raids made and 
atrocities committed in Cooke and the adjoining counties. 

When General Sherman made a tour of the frontier posts 
in person, and came near being murdered himself, when he 
saw with his own eyes the brutal deeds of the government- 
protected Indians, tracing them to a government reserva- 
tion, he arrested three of the band that had killed bis 
wagoners and burned his wagons and had nearly succeeded 
in murdering him, had them tried in a Texas court and sen- 
tenced for life to the penitentiary. 

After that the United States Government protected the 
frontier from the " poor Indians." Scenes like these inspired 
Hawthorne, Longfellow, Cooper, Gilmore, Simms, and George 



76 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Egbert Craddock. When will our Miss Murfree or George 
Eliot be born on Texas soil to write for us the legends of our 
border warfare, and record our deeds of frontier heroism, 
and tell in burning words the glory -crowned martyrdom of 
the early settlers of the State? 



CHAPTER IX. 
IN THE REALMS OF ART. 



Mrs. Elizabet Ney. — It is not generally known that 
there now lives in Texas one of the world's renowned artists — 
Mrs. Elizabet Ney. In her famous works the richest forms 
of sculpture have found expression, and splendid courts and 
costly galleries have testified to her genius and rewarded her 
achievements. No less great than her great sisters in the 
art — Prospersia Rossi of the sixteenth century and Harriet 
G. Hosmer of her own age — she has demonstrated the powders 
of her sex in the highest regions of plastic creation. Mrs. 
Ney's father was the nephew of the celebrated French marshal 
of the same name, and she was born in the Westphalian town 
of Miinster. She is the wife of Doctor Montgomery, a scien- 
tist whose specialties lie in the fields of botany and biology, 
but she has preferred to retain her own name, being that 
under which she earned her earliest laurels, and by which she 
is identified in art circles. 

Her talent revealed itself almost in infancy, and it was 
developed under the hand of Christian Bauch, then unrivaled 
in the art. After his death, she opened a studio at Berlin, 
where the first fruits of her work excited the warmest admira- 
tion in the circle of thelovers of art, among others, Alexander 
von Humboldt, whose visits bore testimony to the genius of 
the artist. While in Berlin she carved the statue of Mitsch- 
erlich, Jakob Grimm, and other celebrities, and was recalled 
thence to her native town to adorn its public hall with the 
busts of the representative men of Westphalia. From Miin- 
ster she was summoned to the royal court of Hanover, where 



Prominent Women of Texas. 77 

she sculptured the blind king;, and also Joachim, the violinist; 
Faulbach, the painter ; and Stockhausen, the singer. AVhile 
there, she also carved in marble the gloomy features of the 
austere philosopher, Schopenhauser, the veritable Heraclitus 
of his day. 

Among Mrs. Ney's notable performances was the statue 
of Garibaldi, for which purpose she was called to that famous 
warrior's home in the Island of Caprera. This seems to 
have given offense to her powerful friend and patron, the 
king of Hanover, despite whose protestations, she persisted 
in honoring her ideal of a patriot and a hero. 

At Munich, the Bavarian capital, Mrs. Ney designed much 
of the splendid ornamentation lavished upon the interior of 
one of the most massive and sumptuous of its public build- 
ings. While there engaged, her studio was established in 
the royal palace, and it was there that she sculptured from 
life the busts of Liebig and Wohler, the most advanced chem- 
ists of their generation. These busts now adorn the cham- 
bers of chemistry in the polytechnic school of Munich. 

Mrs. Ney's next work of public interest was the marble 
bust of Bismarck, for which she was retained by the late Ger- 
man Emperor William I. This bust and that of Garibaldi 
were exhibited together at the Paris Exposition in 1868. 
Mrs. Ney's travels have been principally in Italy, Greece and 
Egypt, whose classic memories, no doubt, directed her steps. 
Egypt, the earliest of historic nations, was the cradle of 
sculpture, and Greece, the most aesthetic, was its nursery. 
Born of devotion on the mystic banks of the Nile, it ripened 
into beauty under the mellowing skies of Olympus, Parnas- 
sus and Delphi. 

Mrs. Ney's advent among us is partly due to the softness 
of our genial chmate, which she learned to love on the Medi- 
terranean shores, but chiefly to the unopened field for didac- 
tic effort in the fine arts. She, therefore, came to the capital 
of the State to inaugurate plans for the erection of an acad- 
emy of liberal arts, and to induce the State to recognize the 
practical benefits of art education by providing for it in the 
curriculum of her State University. Her plans are, of course. 



78 Prominent Women of Texas. 

not restricted to her own specialty, but embrace all the arts 
that have been created by modern discoveries and inven- 
tions. She assumes the position taken by the most advanced 
teachers of the day: that the progress made in the world's 
activities and in the improved methods required in pursuing 
them, has had the effect of creating an unprecedented de- 
mand for trained labor and, consequently, of throwing out 
of employment such numbers of untrained hands as to dis- 
turb the equipoise of social industries and bring distress upon 
large classes of worthy and willing people; that, in order to 
relieve this plethora of unskilled industry, the new conditions 
must be met by training young men and women to labor in 
the new fields and according to the new methods, that upon 
this training depends the success, if not the safety, of the 
government; and that technical instruction should, as a 
consequence, be engrafted upon the State's present system of 
free education and eleemosynary aid. Mrs. Ney, holding 
these views, and being strongly impressed with the belief that 
the general poverty and frequent disorders that prevail con- 
stitute a serious menace to the country, fervently appeals to 
our statesmen and political economists to avert it. 



CHAPTER X. 

MRS. WALTER GRESHAM — MISS JULIA SINKS ROBERTSON — 

MISS DEE BEEBE — MISS MARGARET JOBE — MISS CORDIE 

HEARNE — MRS. G. W. BARKER — JVIRS. BIRD DU- 

VALL — MISS MARION BROWN — MRS. KRON- 

ENGER — MRS. MARIA CAGE KIMBALL. 



Mrs. Walter Gresham. — The best society in the most 
cultured nation of antiquity gave less thought to the forms 
and urbanities of social life than to its embellishments as 
exhibited through the fine arts and their atten(lant graces. 
In process of time these habits of home culture were lost in 
the multiplicity of customs that crowded upon the broaden- 
ing area of national intercourse, and the arts, except as 




MRS. WALTER GRESHAM. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 79 

industrial pursuits, were submerged under the flood of con- 
ventionalities that deluged the gay courts of rival capitals. 
It is only within comparatively modern times that the world's 
new civilization has begun to restore the deposed graces and 
to reinstate in social circles the neglected arts of twenty cen- 
turies ago. The recall of these exiles is, in my thologic phrase, 
the reinstatement of our household divinities ; the restoration 
of the muses to their rightful thrones. American society, es- 
pecially American women, have given their quota of toil and 
talent to this result, and Texas women, hke their cultured sis- 
ters in the other States, are daily adding to their triumphs in 
arts and letters. To this class of workers belongs Mrs. Walter 
Gresham of Galveston, who is distinguished for pure taste 
and execution in the art of painting. She has elicited the 
applause of critics upon her work, both on canvas and china, 
and she still pursues her studies, ever reaching after the i)^^- 
pon and the aristoD of the aesthetic Greeks. With her ardor 
and her talents she may easily pass beyond the borders of 
the dilettante, and wrest from fame some of her envied 
trophies. 

Mrs. Gresham is the wife of Walter Gresham, a late mem- 
ber of Congress from Texas, and well known for his wealth, 
influence and ability. She is a native Texan and was born at 
Corpus Christi, where she is remembered in society as Miss 
Josephine C. Mann. Her father was a Virginian, and her 
mother a South Carolinian, cousin of John C. Calhoun, and 
belonging to the well-known Baskin family of that State. 
She has five children, of whom the eldest, a daughter, is mar- 
ried. Her residence, in the city of Galveston, is a spacious 
and sumptuous mansion of imposing appearance, built of 
yellowish gray sandstone, Komanesque-gothic in style, with 
a ground area of about ninety feet square, and a handsome 
front of commanding height overlooking the principal thor- 
oughfare of the city. Strong outline is given to the building 
by a massive corner tower twelve feet in diameter, and by 
a turret nearer the center with shaft in mosaic of blue and 
red granite and gray sandstone, pinnacle of dressed sand- 
stone and surmounted by highly ornamental finial. The 



80 Prominent Women of Texas. 

door at the main entrance is guarded on either side by a 
column of polished porphyritic granite of purplish red hue, 
producing an extremely graceful and classic effect. The 
carving, tracery and moulding within the building are as 
elaborate in artistic design as are the decorations and finish 
of the exterior. In this home of marvelous beauty the brush 
has kept pace with the chisel ; its most noted achievement is 
the painting on the ceiling of the dining-hall, which, for ac- 
curacy of perspective and harmony of colors suggests the 
work of the masters in the Sistine Chapel. Connected with 
the building is a conservatory designed in conformity to the 
general architecture, and in which are many rare plants, both 
indigenous and exotic. 

Such is the home over which Mrs. Gresham presides, and 
in which she performs, with taste, dignity and ease, the social 
duties belonging to a life and environments such as hers. 
Domestic in her habits, and of strong motherly instincts, 
she gives her first care to the direction and welfare of her 
household ; with the gifts and the culture of the artist, she 
finds abundant occupation for her leisure hours in the 
studies that belong to the palette and easel. Thus en- 
dowed by nature and education with capacity for elegant 
enjoyment, favored by fortune with the means for its in- 
dulgence, and imbued by a spirit both cheerful and gener- 
ous, Mrs. Gresham brings to society the choicest elements 
for its enlightenment, its beneficence, and its polish. 

Julia Sinks Robertson. — Seldom do we note in the 
annals of art, the name of one so rarely endowed with the 
rich gift of form and color as was Julia Sinks Robertson. 

Her wonderful wealth of genius may have been an inherit- 
ance — inasmuch as she was a niece of Samuel Lee, a noted 
painter of Cincinnati, a cotemporary and warm friend of 
Hiram Powers. She was immediately descended from the 
widely known pioneers of southwest Texas — Dr. Joseph 
and Mrs. Lydia Lee Robertson. Cradled in the wilds of the 
western frontier, with no breath of art atmosphere to fan 
the divine spark, we find the child with sensitive temper- 



Prominent Women of Texas. 81 

ament and refined thought, expressing her passionate love 
of nature in spirited sketches of shady nooks, or tiny cas- 
cades, or breezy distances that appealed to her poetic fancy. 

At this juncture, her celebrated uncle — whose mantle was 
to fall on her shoulders — made a visit to the then far away 
Texas home, and the startling revelation of brush, palette, 
pigment, and canvas, opened a world of thrilhng possibili- 
ties to her. 

In a rapture of silent wonder, day by day she w^atched the 
magic touch of brush beneath which sprang to life an un- 
dreamed of vision of beauty. And when the great man was 
gone, a few cast-oif brushes and some tubes of paint were 
proudly borne away to the attic window, and a rude easel 
at once prepared. 

Titian, Holbein, or Rembrandt must surely have whis- 
pered to the white fingered child, as she patient I3' tied four 
small sticks together and stretched a bit of cloth over them, 
and rapidly placed on her roj^al canvas the hills and valleys 
so dear to her heart. 

Even thus early was manifested that quick response to 
nature, that in later years enabled her to paint a sunset 
ere it faded ; for, like Duran, she loved the sunsets and 
afterglows, and they leffc all their tender sweetness on her 
canvas. 

Her sincere and sympathetic interpretation of nature grew 
with her, and at riper years resulted in a wholly unaffected 
technique, which made every picture a true art achievement. 

Far removed from feverish salon clamor for recognition, 
she never drifted into pyrotechnic coloring or sensational 
methods; but with simple integrity copied nature in its 
truth. She was singularly successful in her pictures of baby 
faces, with their damp hair-tendrils and sleep-flushed cheeks ; 
and her brush has made imperishable the sweet flowers of 
her own Texas. 

Who shall doubt the divine inspiration of genius, when, 
from an untaught, unheralded canvas shines out the soulful 
eyes of a Greuze, the tender realism of Bougereau's child 
pictures, the marvelous technique of Corot, and the spirit 

W. of T.— 6 



82 Prominent Women of Texas. 

and vigor of Dagnau Bouveret; and we are told that the 
modest, gifted woman, whose wealth of soul is thus revealed, 
had studied no methods save her own, had never trodden 
the halls of a salon, or even seen the works which have 
made our great masters immortal. Her pictures, with a few 
exceptions, remain in the family. "The Return of the Fish- 
erman," is in the collection of Mrs. T. F. Mitchell, and an 
original landscape being in the possession of Mrs. Searcy. 

The life work of this gifted woman was brief; her genius 
had just unfolded its wings, when they were folded forever. 
The brush fell from the white hand, the easel stands draped 
in the corner, and the window away in the attic is desolate. 

Miss Dee Beebe, of Galveston, the daughter of Mrs. S. 
R. Beebe, so well and favorably known in the educational 
world of Texas, is one of the most capable artists in the 
State. 

A morning of pleasure and valuable education in art 
knowledge can be spent by anyone who has the entree to 
the charmed atmosphere of her studio in the Young Men's 
Christian Association Building in Galveston. There can be 
seen a collection of oil and water color paintings, studies 
and etchings in various stages of completion, of such marked 
ability and originality as to stamp the artist as one of those 
children of genius that have been touched with the sacred 
flame that ev^er burns in the truly artistic soul. 

Miss Beebe paints what she sees, and she sees the true, 
the beautiful, and the picturesque, in nature, and those tints 
in earth and air, in sky and water, which are revealed only to 
the eye and spirit of the inspired artist, even before technical 
skill has been acquired necessary to put them on canvas. 

But this artist has also acquired the technique of her art, 
for she has been an earnest student from childhood, under the 
best masters that Galveston could give- her, and later in the 
Cincinnati Art Conservatory, and then in that great art 
center of America, New York City. 

After remaining in Cincinnati one year, M! s Beebe reluc- 
tantly left that admirable preparatory school for the greater 



Prominent Women of Texas. 83 

facilities offered in New York for the pursuit of what she had 
elected to make her life work. 

There she continued her studies under Mr. William Chase 
and Mr. Kenyon Cox, and after having the honor of being 
elected to the membership of The Art League of New York, 
she entered the studio of Wendell, the famous landscape 
painter, and went down with him to Gloucester, Massachu- 
setts, to learn his methods of putting water effects upon 
canvas. 

Her favorite studies and most popular pictures show how 
well she applied her admirable powers to the splendid op- 
portunities that have been given her up to the present time. 
Her treatment of still life, her water and atmospheric effects, 
and her selection of subjects, are all in evidence of her consci- 
entious attention to detail. 

This, added to the indomitable industry and fine judgment 
of the young artist, give promise of a near future of rarely 
successful endeavor in the high field of work to which she is 
devoting her life. 

Galveston mayAvell be proud of the nobly earned successes 
of this young artist, who possesses much strength of charac- 
ter, genius, and a high sense of duty. 

Mrs. Margaret Jobe'S remarkable skill with the brush 
emphasizes the surprise one must experience upon viewing 
the careful, finished productions of those who have developed 
their gifts though exiled from art centers. The painter re- 
quires constant communion with nature, to burnish into 
perfection the vivid thoughts, the living outlines that, thus 
transformed, will glow upon the canvas. Yet this, the fire 
and fever of inspiration, is not all that is required, for al- 
though art is three parts divine, it is one part human, and 
therefore must be given the most unwearied and elaborate 
training. The conditions favored this special training when 
Miss Jobe became the pupil of Miss Janet Downie, an artist 
who has added luster to her capacity under the tutelage of 
European masters. Through this association Miss Jobe has 
enriched her natural gifts, and with patient effort gives 



84 Prominent Women of Texas. 

promise of reaching the Pisgah of this fascinating pursuit. 
She is the daughter of Doctor Jobe, of Gonzales, who rendered 
skillful and faithful service, as surgeon in the Confederate 
army, and the granddaughter of Mr. Wm. D. Smith, one of 
the early pioneers, who located on the Guadalupe River in 
1823, having previously served at New Orleans in the war 
of 1812. 

Miss Cordie Hearne has devoted the greater part of her 
life to art. She has studied in the East, where some of her 
work has been highly praised by art critics, and has sold 
for good prices. She understands the intricacies of coloring 
and has done a great deal of decorative work. Her speci- 
mens of china painting found a place in the art exhibit in the 
World's Fair in 1893. Miss Hearne, has the faculty of im- 
parting her methods, and has given satisfaction as an 
instructor to large classes in colleges and at her own studio 
in Dallas. 

Mrs. George W. Barker holds an honorable place 
among contemporary artists. It is easy to trace in her 
noble compositions, wrought out with power and feehng, an 
Indescribable touch of life that has won for Mrs. Barker her 
laurels. She has made portraiture a specialty and is one of 
the most successful artists of Houston, where she has her 
home and studio. 

Mrs. Bird Duvall, of San Antonio, has profited by her 
studies in Europe. She has a poetic, sensitive nature, which 
gives her a faculty of expression in the realm of art some- 
what akin to that of a master musician. She has been 
especially successful in developing the talent of others and in 
giving direction to various phases of artistic activity. She 
has won fame for her fidelity in this field. 

Miss Marion Brown, of Dallas, is a fine amateur artist. 
Her love of art has proven an inspiration during the years 
in which she has devoted herself to the cultivation of her 



Prominent Women of Texas. 85 

talent. She received her first lessons under the tutelage of 
Miss Sophie Mitchell, of Rhode Island. For the past six years 
she has been a student of Mrs. R. J. Onderdonk, one of the 
founders of the Art Students' League in NeAv York City. 
Miss Brown's water colors are exquisite, while her work in 
oil and pastel has been considered equally fine. She has 
achieved much success through her illustrations with pen 
and ink, 

Mrs. Kronenger pamts with remarkable fidelity and 
dramatic force. She has been a diligent student, and her pic- 
tures are attractive as well for their technical qualities as for 
their refined reaUsm. Her home is in San Antonio. 

Mrs. Maria Cage Kimball, of Galveston, is one of the 
most gifted artists of her day. She has visited the principal 
cities of Europe to study the work of the greatest painters 
and has always been received with a degree of distinction 
worthy of her merit. In the treatment of her subjects she 
sees the dignified, graceful and agreeable, and communicates 
it to the canvas with a felicity rare in art. Like Teniers, 
she excels in scenes from humble life. 



CHAPTER XL 

"WELL KNOWN VOCALISTS. 

MRS. L. RICHARDS-CLAGETT — MRS. DIXIE CROOKS POTTER 
— MISS BESSIE HUGHES. 



Mrs. L. Richards-Clagett. — Among the remarkable 
workers of the present day, in voice culture, none have 
exhibited a higher devotion to improved methods, nor a 
more conscientious application of their axioms in the modern 
school of instruction than has Mrs. L. Richards-Clagett. 

So important and so varied are the accomplishments that 
are dependent upon the human voice for their fullest expres- 
sion that, from Pythagoras and Euclid to the present time, 



86 Prominent Women of Texas. 

the world's best thinkers have been enJisted for its develop- 
ment; but not until the present century was the field of study 
so enlarged as to embrace sciences heretofore undeveloped or 
deemed inapplicable for the purpose. A decisive impulse in the 
direction of the new processes was given by Molineaux' work, 
by Doctor Rush's Philosophy, by Lablanche, by Carlo Bassini, 
and by Garcia, the latter of whom insisted that a knowledge 
of human anatomy was indispensable to the teacher who 
would form and develop the voice. Others of equal note have 
lectured and written and taught in the same progressive 
spirit. Among these Mrs. Richards-Clagett takes high rank, 
and can exhibit, as the fruit of her many years' labor, voices 
in a dozen States whose melody is the delight of church, of 
concert hall, and lecture room. 

Mrs. Richards-Clagett came to America from her native 
Scotland, at a very early age, and soon gave evidence of such 
natural flexibility and compass of voice, and of such intui- 
tive appreciation of the harmony of sound, that measures 
were ta,ken by her father to develop her remarkable gifts. 
The best masters were employed, and the most approved 
physical discipline was observed, and, as a result, her progress 
was as rapid as her precocious powers could have promised. 
Her attainments and her predilections soon pointed out to 
her that her proper Ufe work lay in the direction of training 
and developing the vocal talents of others in the manner that 
had been so successful with her own. Once embarked upon 
this career ; she surrendered herseK wholly to its duties, and 
gave to their performance the riches that nature and art and 
experience combined alone can command. In her work she 
never fails of a harvest — not a harvest of material rewards 
alone, but a harvest of successful effort, and of gratitude and 
affection from successful pupils. 

In her system of instruction Mrs. Clagett is committed to 
that philosophy of voice-building that recognizes as factors 
not only the lungs, and the larynx, and the mouth, and such 
organs as are directly concerned in the production of vocal 
sound, but also all other organs and structures that more 
or less remotely contribute to the activity of the functions 



Prominent "VYomek of Texas. 87 

immediately involved. The nerves and their sensitive sources 
of expression, no less than the muscles of the throat, are im- 
plicated in adjusting the tension of the vocal chords, and 
thereby in determining the number of their vibrations. The 
sj^stem, thus broad in its conception of cooperative action 
among associated organs, is equally comprehensive in its 
recognition of the powers mutually exerted between kindred 
sciences. It thus opens to the teacher a field of study that is 
rich in materials for illustration. The acoustic laws, for in- 
stance, are found to be in close analogy to those of optics. 
The tones of sound are collected by the vocal organs as the 
rays of light are collected by a glass, and a "focus of vibra- 
tion " is attained in both that will mark the highest point of 
concentrated energy. The system, furthermore, goes beyond 
the mere physical causes of sound, and finds eflScient influence 
in the moral part of man. That essence in our nature holds 
its seat in a body from which it converses with the outer world 
through the appointed organs of sense and sympathy. If 
that essence be nurtured in the admonitions of a pure and 
lofty spirit, its inspirations will soften every harshness, will 
strengthen every weakness in the tones through which it 
finds expression. Thus, this medium of interpretation, the 
voice, endowed with highest sympathy, takes on the habit 
of its moral training and interprets passions, emotions, 
thoughts, after the manner of its teacher; and thus, the voice 
may flow from its depths dripping with tears, or leap from 
the throat sparkling with joy; may suffer and tremble under 
the burden of its pathos, or, bathed in the sunshine of the 
heart, it may warm into gladness the sorrowing life of its 
listener. 

Mrs. Richards-Clagett, in this union of ethical teaching 
with vocal calisthenics, has produced results in her eighteen 
years of instruction, and among her hundreds of pupils, that 
must permanently influence the social life of our people. 

After many years of close application to her classes before 
coming to Texas, Mrs. Clagett succumbed under the confine- 
ment incident to the work, and resorted to her native coun- 
try for recreation and repose. On coming back to America 



88 Prominent Women of Texas. 

in the autumn of 1893, her physicians ordered her South, 
and she adopted Dallas, in this State, as her home. She there 
took a class of thirty-five pupils, and this class, by accession 
from abroad, soon increased to two hundred and fifty. 
Finding herself again overworked, she took refuge in the 
healthful regions near Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and, 
unable to resist the fascinations of her work, she there formed 
a class of four hundred pupils, drawn from several of the 
adjacent states. After her course of instruction to this class 
was completed, she left Arkansas and returned to her former 
home and her former work in Dallas. 

It may be said of the attainments of Mrs. Eichards- 
Clagett, that they are measured by the limits she has as- 
signed to the science of voice-building and its correlative 
arts; and, of her life and character, that they reflect the 
studies embraced within this broad field of thought. Anat- 
omy, physiology, acoustics, moral and mental philosophy, 
are the quarries from which she has gleaned the material for 
her building, and, like an intelligent architect, she has given 
to these, as to the sources of the elements that enter into 
her structure, the best years of a life devoted to meditation, 
to study, and to productive toil. 

Mrs. Dixie Crooks Potter. — Mrs. Potter's grand- 
father, Turner B. Edmund son, emigrated from Mississippi to 
Texas in 1839, and settled in Paris, then a small village; 
there her mother's infant years were passed; and there she 
herself was born, May 23, 1862. Thus she is of the third gen- 
eration of her family, who are Texans by birth or adoption, 
and she may be fairly enrolled among the autochthons of 
her country, as were the proud Athenians of the laud that in- 
spired their patriotic ardor. On the paternal side of her house 
Mrs. Potter is also of pioueer descent. Her father, T. J. 
Crooks, came to Texas from Indiana in 1 844, w hen only nine 
years of age, and has borne true allegiance to the land of the 
Lone Star. He began life as a printer, then became a news- 
paper publisher, to the duties of which he gave thirty-five 
years of his life. He has filled public office, legislative and 



Prominent Women op Texas. 89 

judicial, in both Republic and State ; he has also served in 
the municipal o;overnments of Sherman and Denison, and 
he lately held the position of United States Commissioner 
in Indian Territory. 

When Mrs. Potter was ten years of age she removed with 
her parents from Paris to the adjacent city of Sherman, in 
Grayson County. She there entered the North Texas Female 
College and remained till the completion of her educational 
course. During this time she gave signal proof of the vocal 
gifts foreshadowed in her childhood, and she cultivated them 
with a patience and assiduity unusual in one of her years. 
The compass and melody of her rare voice soon gave her 
local fame, and made her a familiar figure in choir, concert 
and social gatherings. Conscious of her powers she resolved 
to enter broader fields. She took a course in the New Eng- 
land Conservatory at Boston, in which city, as well as in other 
musical centers of Massachusetts, her songs were always 
greeted by full houses of delighted listeners. On her return 
to Texas she was welcomed with many expressions and tes- 
timonials of appreciation; notably a reception at Austin 
attended by the legislature in a body, and presided over 
by the Governor of the State. Two years after her return 
she again left home for a visit to Washington City. She 
there attracted the attention of Prof. J. W. Bischoff, organist 
of the First Congregational Church, through whom she was 
engaged as sopranist, and filled, during two seasons, appoint- 
ments in the Bischoff Concert Course, and also at the Mozart 
Musicales, of Richmond, Virginia. Among other evidences 
of the favor in which she was held at the capital may be 
mentioned a musical entertainment under the patronage of 
members of the Cabinet and Congress, encomiums from 
foreign ministers and musical critics, and the flattering at- 
tention received from Mrs. Cleveland, by whom she was 
christened the "Song bird of Texas." 

When she returned to her Texas home she was the 
recipient of an ovation altogether worthy of her tri- 
umphs and of the high order of talents by which they 
were won. 



90 Prominent Women of Texas. 

In February, 1888, she was married to C. L. Potter, Esq., 
a member of the Texas bar, and carried with her into domes- 
tic life, not only the sweet memory of plaudits and praise, but 
the gladsome gifts by which that life is so efficiently adorned. 
Her home is now to the social world around her what her 
melody was to the musical world when she stood before it 
as the " Song bird of Texas." 

Miss Bessie Hughes, the sweet soprano singer of Hous- 
ton, whose lovely and sympathetic voice has received the 
most careful training which art can give under the tutelage 
of the best musicians, is appreciated by the music and art 
loving world of Texas. 

A modest, industrious and earnest student of music, she 
has been drawn frequently from her retirement and busy life 
to appear before critical audiences in San Diego, Pacific Beach, 
Houston, and many places in this State. 

She has made her mark in comic opera as well as on the 
lyric stage, in concerts, and at private entertainments among 
leading society people. 

Her popularity as a lovable, noble and conscientious girl 
is only equaled by her fame as a finished vocalist and 
dramatic artist. 

Her numerous friends and admirers, as well as the news- 
paper critics, predict for Miss Hughes a brilUant career, and 
one of solid and long duration. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MISS MARGUERITE FISHER — MISS MAMIE VAN ZANDT — 

MISS GRACE KNIGHT — MRS. JOHN O. CARR 

— MRS. T. ATLEE COLEMAN. 



Miss Marguerite Fisher. — No gift of nature so soon 
reveals itself as that of rhythmical expression in uttering 
vocal sounds. It is often heralded in the infant's earliest 
notes ; it is always known before the tender years of child- 




MISS BESSIE HUGHES. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 91 

hood have passed away. And thus it was that, while yet a 
cheery songstress in the nursery, Miss Marguerite Fisher 
disclosed the priceless heritage of her rich soprano voice, to- 
day made famous by its wealth of volume and of sweetness. 

Miss Fisher is a native Texan, born at Brenham, in 1875. 
She there began her vocal training and paved the way to 
higher and more classic culture. At the age of seventeen she 
was sent to Leipsic, the music center of the world, and 
entered the Royal Conservatory under the skillful guidance 
of Professor Wold, a teacher of European reputation. In 
this great school is everywhere apparent the genius of 
Mendelssohn, its noble and well-remembered founder. In the 
city that enshrines it — the city that is named for its sweetly 
murmuring lindens — music finds its tenderest, its most en- 
dearing memories. There Bach died, and there Wagner was 
born. In the broad fatherland that cherishes both the classic 
city and its temple of melody, every hamlet tenderly pre- 
serves the crypt or cradle of one or more of music's sweet 
interpreters, and music is the familiar friend of every home, 
the cheerful guest at every board. There is the land of Han- 
del, creator of the solemn oratorio ; of Gluck, the father of 
the opera; and Weber and Meyerbeer, his splendid succes- 
sors ; of Hayden and Beethoven, the writers of imperishable 
symphonies ; of Mozart, the unrivaled composer of sonatas 
and serenatas ; and of a host of others whose compositions 
will last as long as there is air to give to sound its voice. 
In the midst of such a land, the true lover of music must be 
stirred by the inspiration of its memories and the genius 
of its people; and, if endowed with the gift of harmonious 
expression, must rise to the highest plane of successful effort. 
This is the promise that fortunate environments and ahappy 
combination of events seem to hold out to Miss Fisher. 

Her first public appearance after her return from Ger- 
many w^as at Houston, her next at Galveston ; in both these 
cities her marvelous renditions elicited instant and hearty 
applause. The press at once recognized her merit, and was 
most lavish in its praise. Every incident in the young life 
of the debutante assumed an interest that gave it value to 



92 Prominent Women of Texas. 

the writers of current history; and, to add to the attractions 
toward which the public gravitates, the sweet singer pre- 
sents a commanding presence, a graceful figure, and 
features of classic beauty and proportion. She receives the 
public applause with rare good sense, and with a poise 
altogether unique in one so young in years. 

Miss Mamie Van Zandt was born in Texas in 1861, and 
is the gTanddaughter of Signor Antonio Blitz. Her musical 
gifts are a direct inheritance from her mother, Mrs. Jennie 
Van Zandt, who was forced through financial reverses to 
make her talents available. Mamie's voice, even in childhood, 
was remarkable for range and quality. In 1873 she entered 
a convent in London, where she received careful instruction, 
and where she was associated with Adeliua Patti, who ad- 
vised her to train for an operatic career. She studied with 
Lami^erti in Milan, Italy, and in 1879 made her debut in 
Turin, appearing as Zerlina. Her triumph was flattering 
and led to her second appearance in "La Somnambula." 
In 1880 she sang in Her Majesty's Opera Company in Lon- 
don, and a year later made her debut in Paris in the Opera 
Comique in "Mignon." She sang in Paris four seasons and 
has sung in the principal musical centers of Europe. Her 
repertory is extensive. She has won great renown and ranks 
as one of the foremost sopranos of the period. 

Miss Grace Knight has many brilliant gifts and accom- 
plishments. She is well read in the English classics, a 
linguist, a proficient in music and a writer of prose and 
verse. Many of her sketches, which have found their way 
into Northern periodicals, give evidence of her literary and 
dramatic talent. The deference shown her by the literati 
sanctions the homage paid her intellect, while the critics 
speak in praise of her dramatic power, which she has fre- 
quently exerted for the benefit of charitable causes. Miss 
Knight's home is in Austin. She is at present in Paris, 
France, for the purpose of improving her vocal gifts, which 
have been greatly admired even in that land of golden voices. 




/*'■ '^ 



\^ 




IVII6S MARGUERITE FISHER. 



Prominent Women op Texas. 93 

Mrs. John 0. Carr is a descendant of Revolutionary 
ancestors. Her grandfather, Maj. John Burnham, served on 
General Washington's staff, and she is connected by lineal 
descent and marriage with Thomas Jefferson and many of the 
oldest families in the South. She has received a hberal edu- 
cation, to which she has added the accomplishments that 
embellish social life. Mrs. Carr possesses a voice of fine 
quahty and compass, hterary tastes, and conversational 
powers, which fit her to become a valued member of the 
musical and literary clubs of her city. Her home is in 
Houston, where she has elevated the standard of musical 
culture, and where her vocal gifts have won for her a high 
place among contemporary musicians. 

Mrs. T. Atlee Coleman will be remembered as Miss 
Birdie Keran. Her vocal talent has been frequently exerted 
in the noble cause of charity, and she maintains her reputa- 
tion as an excellent and sympathetic musician. Possessing 
natural gifts of a high order she has enjoyed the advantages 
of generous and careful culture. She graduated with dis- 
tinction in Virginia and completed her musical studies in 
Boston under the supervision of Prof. J. Harvy Wheeler. 
While Mrs. Coleman has acquired 7a maladie of perfection in 
music, this proficiency has not been attained at the expense 
of the domestic virtues, for above all it is in her delightful 
home in San Antonio that she finds her most attractive 
setting. 

CHAPTER XHI. 

MRS. ARTHUR BORNEFELDT — MRS. GABRIEL JORDAN — 

— MISS ZULEMA GARCIA — MISS DORA VELESCO 

BECKER — MRS. JAMES BOLTON. 



Mrs. Arthur Bornefeldt, nee Miss Mamie Fowler, has 
fortunately possessed the best opportunities for the cul- 
tivation of her musical gifts. Her progress, while a 
pupil of William Mason, and of A. R. Parsons, of New 



94 Prominent Women of Texas. 

York, combined with additional European study, resulted 
in the high ideals and standards of excellence that have 
given her first rank in musical circles. She is well known 
as a pianist. Her performance is that of an interpreter 
familiar with the vast field of musical art. Mrs. Bornefeldt 
is a Galvestonian, and directress of the Ladies Musical Club 
of that city, an organization composed of representative 
women, possessing wealth and cultivation. In this at- 
mosphere she commands extensive influence, and is noted 
for her graceful manners and refinement. 

Mrs. Gabriel Jordan has been for many years a resi- 
dent of Houston, where her late husband was a prominent 
figure in railroad circles, being, at the time of his death, pres- 
ident of three railroad companies. 

Mrs. Jordan finds a ready appreciation for her social and 
musical gifts in that city, where an atmosphere of refinement 
pervading the higher walks of social and intellectual life, in- 
vites the expansion of her chief accomplishment. With this 
noble gift, which the Greeks selected as the master science, 
and over which presided the celestial Nine, she holds her 
audience in a spell of melody and vies with the muses in their 
sweet influences, while around her cluster other charming 
graces of social life, adorned by travel and contact with 
congenial spirits, thus developing by intellectual friction the 
higher social quahties. 

Her daughter, Mrs. Martin Lee, has a voice of superior 
excellence and beauty. 

Miss ZuLEMA Garcia. — "Pianist, artist, composer" — 
as she is addressed in a letter from Madame Victoria Fiosilli, 
directress of the Neapolitan Conservatory of Art, is a young 
Texan, who has acquired a world-wide celebrity. She 
was born at San Antonio, of Castilian parentage, distin- 
guished not only by birth and lineage, but also for talent, 
mental cultivation, and refinement. 

Miss Garcia's remarkable musical talent was cultivated 
at an early age under the supervision of the best musical 



Prominent Women of Texas. 95 

professors of San Antonio, and completed under the cele- 
brated Marmontel of Paris, who predicted a brilliant future 
for the talented young artist. His prophecy has been ful- 
filled. Miss Garcia has received seven gold medals — four of 
which are for musical achievements. 

She was the youngest lady manager appointed from any 
State to the World's Fair in Chicago, and while there re- 
ceived the same distinguished attentions which have been 
accorded her in all the other large cities which she has visited. 

Among other compliments paid Miss Garcia at the 
World's Fair was the rendition of her now world-wide pop- 
ular " Columbus March," by Sousa's band, afterwards taken 
up by the Iowa State and other State bands. 

Another one of her compositions rendered and popular- 
ized by the Elgin band of Illinois, at the Fair, was Miss Gar- 
cia's "Texas Spring Palace Waltz." 

She is still in her teens, has composed over eighty pieces 
of music, and, as a pianist, violinist, and guitarist, is a mu- 
sical marvel. In appearance, to quote from The Gulf Mes- 
senger : "Miss Garcia possesses the rare beauty and grace 
of the Castilian people. She is petite, vivacious, has a face 
of vdnning sweetness and beautiful dark eyes, and resembles 
the world-renowned songstress, Adelina Patti." 

Her delightful home in San Antonio, is one of the oldest 
and most interesting residences in the city, and there the 
proverbial hospitality of a Spanish greeting is generously ex- 
tended by its lovely hostess to those who call upon her. 

Miss Dora Velesco Becker is of Hungarian parent- 
age. She was born in Galveston, Texas, and early in life 
gave evidence of remarkable skill as a volinist. This talent 
was a direct inheritance from her mother, who had always 
exhibited the greatest desire to become proficient in music 
though her wish had never been gratified. Her father was 
conductor of the Galveston Singing Society and it was in 
this city she made her d^but at the age of seven. At a sec- 
ond concert given two years later, she received many hand- 
some presents of jewelry, and a beautiful three-quarter-sized 



96 Prominent Women of Texas. 

violin as evidences of appreciation from her auditors. Miss 
Becker then continued her studies under competent teachers; 
Reimendhl, Sam. Franko, Carl Richter, Richard Arnold, and 
other instructors of note. Her New York debut took place 
in Steinway Hall. She was then only ten years of age. Six 
years later she entered the Royal Academy of Music at Ber- 
lin. At a preliminary examination no less than eighty 
young instrumentalists played ; of these only seven were ad- 
mitted to the High School, Miss Becker being one of the 
number who passed the ordeal successfully. She was im- 
mediately selected as the pupil of the great Joseph Joachim 
and of Professor Kruse. 

Mrs. James Bolton. — The last rose crowning this chap- 
let of musicians of Texas is Mrs. James Bolton, of Whites- 
boro, formerly Miss Linda Tideman. Having spent five 
years of study in Chicago, and at the Boston Conservatory 
of Music, Mrs. Bolton has not only acquired the technique 
of the one art which we are assured will be exercised in 
heaven, but likewise she is a thoroughly educated musical 
artist. 

She has not only reached the highest point of excellence 
possible in instrumental music, but has also the proficiency 
in that scientific knowledge of her art which makes her a 
maestro fully capable of imparting her knowledge and 
methods to others. As a teacher she is unrivaled. Her 
tastes, as well as her temperament, are those of an 
artist. 

Filled with those heaven-born aspirations which ever 
foster the divine discontent which elevates the soul, she 
possesses the gift of that philosophic spirit which teaches one 
to accept their limitations. Exiled from the musical at- 
mosphere in which her powers have been developed, she is 
still, and ever will be, a worshiper at the shrine of the 
symphonies. Hence, following the lessons of Wagner, she 
makes her unerring taste in the arrangement of pubhc en- 
tertainments only an aid to her intensified devotion to St. 
Cecilia. Euterpe and Polyhymnia. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 97 

Blest with an attractive personality, she charms as much 
by her winning presence as by her rarely handsome face and 
form. To these advantages Mrs. Bolton joins the added 
grace which is the result of having been reared in an atmos- 
phere of culture and refinement among her relatives and 
family connections. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PROMINENT AUTHORS. 

MRS. AUGUSTA EVANS WILSON — MRS. MAUD J. YOUNG — MRS. 
LEE C. HARBY — MRS. AMELIA E. BARR. 



Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson. — Fifty years ago the 
subject of this sketch, then a little girl, came with her 
parents to Texas from the State of Georgia, where she was 
born. The family, after brief sojourns in Galveston and 
Houston, located in San Antonio, and there resided about 
three years. Mrs. Wilson refers to this residence as a 
"blessed dream," and, in speaking of the influence of her en- 
vironments during these happy years, she says: "The pic- 
turesque scenery and historic associations of quaint old San 
Antonio were important factors in directing my life along 
literary lines." Audit is but natural that a child of her pre- 
cocious gifts and susceptive age, daily gazing upon the 
storied Alamo and dwelling among a people who nursed a 
century's thrilling reminiscences, should be impressed beyond 
the touch of time's effacing hand. Her impressions lingered, 
and they inspired the story of "Inez, a tale of the Alamo." 
This was her first literary work, and was completed at seven- 
teen years of age. The name of Augusta J. Evans then took 
its place on the roll of Southern writers. Her home was 
then, as now, the city of Mobile, Alabama, to which her par- 
ents had removed from Texas, and where, as in earlier years, 
she still prosecuted her studies under the careful tuition of 
her highly cultured mother. At the age of twenty-three, she 
wrote "Beulah;" then followed " Vashti;" "At the Mercy of 

W. of T.— 7 



98 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Tiberius," and other productions, that fixed her status in the 
class of authors distinguished for wealth of language, exu- 
berance of thought, and resources richly freighted with 
stores of literary exploration and scientific study. 

In all her writings, whether published in books or in the 
more fugitive form of periodicals and newspaper contri- 
butions, the quality most conspicuously in evidence is a 
hearty honesty in declaring the truth as she believes it, and 
the feature most prominent in her style is her phenomenal 
command of vivid and technical expression. 

Without perverting the functions of romance from their 
legitimate office of entertainment, she has employed them to 
edify her readers, thus conveying through the fascinations of 
a pure ideality the most practical truths in the domain of re- 
vealed knowledge. Her fiction is, moreover, invested mth 
the dignity of fact, and the narrative thereby excites interest 
and enforces with subtle power the lessons it is intended to 
teach. 

In her married life Mrs. Wilson still pursued with ardor 
the studies of earlier years, and in her widowhood nature 
and books are her companions. Her handsome rural home, 
near Mobile, is the seat of hospitality and the source of un- 
numbered pleasures and blessings that are daily dispensed 
by its beloved mistress. 

Mrs. Maud J. Young. — There is perhaps no Texan 
writer who has displayed greater versatility in the higher 
walks of literature, or who, in as many of its departments, 
has achieved better success than Mrs. Young. In prose, in 
poetry, in belles-lettres, and in natural history, she wrote 
with equal grace, and in each she gleaned laurels that are not 
often twined in the same chaplet of fame. 

Mrs. Young was the daughter of Col. N. Fuller, of North 
Carolina, and was born in Beaufort, of that State, in Novem- 
ber, 1826. She was of distinguished lineage, being related, 
on one side of her house, to the Rolfs and Randolphs of 
Virginia, and on the other, to the Dunbars, Braggs and 
Braxtons of Virginia and Maryland. At the age of twenty, 



Prominext Women of Texas. 99 

she was married to Dr. S. 0. Young, of South Carolina, and 
at twenty-one was left a widow and the mother of a little 
boy of posthumous birth. After this bereavement she moved 
to Texas, and lived for many years in the city of Houston, 
where she died, April 15, 1 882. 

The best known of Mrs. Young's prose compositions, and 
the one that best illustrates both the fervor of her muse and 
the power of her gift for mellifluous expression, is "The Leg- 
end of Sour Lake." Though not a poem in a metrical 
sense, it is a creation of the finest poetic fancy, and the 
smoothness of the narrative makes of it a story of the most 
melodious prose. In versification, she was no less distin- 
guished, and her numerous odes, and idyls and lyrics, attest 
her skill in giving grace and melody to her numbers. 

In her later years she adopted the pseudonym of " Patsy 
Pry," and, over that name, wrote a number of newspaper ar- 
ticles that elicited flattering comments from the press. The 
work, however, upon which rests Mrs. Young's most endur- 
ing fame is her book entitled " Familiar Lessons in Botany," 
with special reference to the flora of Texas, and bound in an 
octavo volume of more than six hundred pages. Prior to 
the appearance of Mrs. Young's publication, the field was 
unexplored, save in an incidental way by untrained observ- 
ers. William Kennedy, in 1844, embodied in his little book 
on Texas some general information on her flora, and five 
years later Dr. Ferdinand Roemer published in German his 
persona] observations of Texas, to which he appended a sum- 
mary review of vegetable life in the country, but neither of 
these writers addressed himself to the naturalist or the stu- 
dent. It remained for Mrs. Young to pioneer both the re- 
searches and the publication of one of the most interesting 
features of Texas inquiry; and, in doing the w^ork, she has 
followed the precise and technical methods of teacher and 
scientist. 

Mrs. Lee C. Harby is a South Carolinian by birth, de- 
scended from Revolutionary ancestors on both sides of her 
family. She lived for twenty years in Texas, where her 



100 Prominent Women of Texas. 

prominent rank in journalistic fields rendered her famous 
amono; the talented women of the State. In 1880 her article 
in the Magazine of American History, entitled the "City of a 
Prince/' attracted favorable j)res8 mention in Russia, Eng- 
land and Germany, and won for her recognition from the 
Historical Association of New York. Mrs. Harby is a con- 
tributor to the New York Home Journal, the Ladies Home 
Journal, of Philadelphia, the new St. Louis journal, the 
Chaperone, and the New Orleans Times-Democrat. She has 
traveled throughout the South in the interest of Frank 
Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. 

Mrs. Amelia E. Barr is well remembered by the early 
residents of Austin, for it was in this city that she lived from 
1856 until 1876. Her first novel, " Jan Tedder's Wife," was 
bought and published by a New York house. Through this 
venture she achieved instantaneous success, for the book at- 
tracted general notice, ran through many editions, and has 
been widely read on both sides of the ocean, and in several 
languages. "Remember the Alamo," recalls the stirring 
episode of the revolt of Texas against Mexican misrule, and 
Mrs. Barr's volume on this subject is still preserved in many 
families as a cherished memento of other days. She was a 
brilliant conversationalist, and old friends attest that it is 
still a pleasure to recall the feeling of satisfaction experienced 
in her society. Her family were of ancient and pure Saxon 
lineage. Reared in the atmosphere of refined culture, she be- 
came a thorough student, and finds great satisfaction in her 
literary work. There is no other author in the United 
States whose writings command a wider circle of readers, and 
it is said that she is almost worshiped by those who dwell on 
Storm King Mountain. Her time is spent at Cherry Croft, 
at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MRS. A. V. WINKLER — MRS. M. E. WHITTEN — MISS SUSANNA 

PINCKNEY— MRS. MARY MITCHEL BROWN — MRS. FANNY 

CHAMBERS GOOCH — MRS. ELLA WILLMAN. 



Mrs. a. V. Winkler is a Virginian by birth, her father 
John Walton and her mother Ehzabeth Tate Smith were 
of English descent, her father a direct heir of Lady 
Mary Hamilton of Manchester, England. She was educated 
in the Richmond Female Institute and in 1864, became the 
wife of Lieutenant Colonel Winkler of the Fourth Texas Regi- 
ment, who shared the fortunes and misfortunes of Hood's 
Texas Brigade. His services were conspicuous in all the 
great battles of Virginia, and ended with the surrender of 
General Lee at Appomattox. Mrs. Winkler was in Rich- 
mond during the war, and had an excellent opportunity to 
observe the stirring events of those unhappy days. The 
scenes she witnessed and Hood's famous brigade play an im- 
portant part in the interesting history she has recently pub- 
lished of her personal reminiscences. This book has been 
favorably received. The author has told her story well, and 
has emphasized her strong and leading points with admirably 
selected extracts from newspaper and official reports, weav- 
ing the whole together so skillfully that interest never flags. 

Mrs. Winkler has contributed popular articles to the 
Southern Illustrated News and Magnolia published in Rich- 
mond, Virginia. For three years she edited a literary maga- 
zine, Corsicana Prairie Flower, and is at present associate 
editor and business manager of the Round Table, a monthly 
magazine published in Texas. The newspapers and maga- 
zines of this and other Southern States have received val- 
uable contributions from her gifted pen. A lady of rare 
accomplishments, it has been well said that by her "culture 

(101) 



102 Prominent Women of Texas. 

and literary attainments she has \^oveu from the sable 
weeds of widowhood, the bright robes of prosperity and 
distinction." 

Mrs. M. E, Whitten, author, born in Austin, Texas, is 
the daughter of Hon. William S.and Hannah B. Hotchkiss. 
She was educated at the Collegiate Female Institute at 
Austin and McKinsey College. While at the latter school her 
loneliness was voiced in the song, " Do they miss me at home." 
Contracting a youthful marriage, she was left a widow at 
twenty-four, without means or knowledge of business. She 
began teaching and achieved great success as an educator. 
She has obtained a comfortable home and other property as 
the material result of her educational and literary efforts. 
Mrs. Whitten is a versatile writer. Her poems, historical, de- 
scriptive and joyous, have been collected, and in 1886, were 
published in book form under the title of " Texas Garlands." 
She read a poem before a Chautauqua audience on Poets' 
Day in 1888, and one written by request was read in Tus- 
cola, Illinois, in 1889, to a large audience. Mrs. Whitten has 
in preparation a "Sketch Book," which will contain, prose, 
poetry, letters of travel and fiction. She has been twice 
married, and her home is in Austin. 

Miss Susanna Pinckney, known to the public as "Miss 
McPherson," the author of the novel, "Douglas, Tender 
and True," is the daughter of Thomas S. Pinckney, Esq., who 
came from South Carolina to Texas in 1836. Her mother 
was Miss Caroline Finney, of Massachusetts. Miss Sue Pinck- 
ney, as she is known in society and among her circle of 
relatives and intimate friends, is one of several children born 
in Texas after the removal of her parents from South 
Carolina. 

At the death of her mother Miss Pinckney became the 
sole mistress and manager of her father's household. With 
two elder brothers in the Confederate army, and her father 
an invalid, the cares and responsibilities of this young girl, 
almost a child herself, may be only faintly imagined by those 



Prominent Women of Texas. 103 

Southern women Avho passed through and survived the 
ordeal of that fratricidal war, waiting, working, watching 
and praying for their dear ones in the army at the front, 
close to the line of duty and of danger. 

Even at that early age she evinced talent for expres- 
sion with the pen by her letters to her brothers and ''all the 
boys" in Company G, 4th Texas Regiment, in far away 
Virg-inia. 

After the war she wrote several serial stories for Texas 
papers, but her culminating literary effort finally manifested 
itself in her "Douglas, Tender and True," which has been 
so well received by the public and the press as to leave no 
doubt of the future literary career of Miss Pinckney. The 
whole spirit which animates the story is worthy of the great- 
great-grandmother of the writer, that Mrs. Richard Shu- 
brick, of whom there is a tradition that on one occasion 
during the Revolution, an American soldier who had 
sought refuge with her, was defended from a British officer 
at the risk of her life. Mrs. Shubrick secreted the American 
in her chamber, and placing herself before the door, said to 
the English officer who tried to force her aside: "To men of 
honor the chamber of a lady should be as sacred as the 
sanctuary. You may succeed in entering mine, but it shall 
be over my dead body." The officer ceased further search. 

Mrs. Mary Mitchel Brown. — In tracing the genealogy 
of Mrs. Brown one fact is conspicuous, that is, that from 
widely divergent lines she is descended from the first immi- 
grants bearing certain names. Thus, she is seventh in direct 
descent from John Alden and his wife, Priscilla Molines, who 
came over in the " Mayflower ; " the seventh from Capt. James 
Avery and his wife, Joan Greeuslade, who came in 1630; and, 
in like manner, she descends from the first arrivals bearing 
the names of William Cheesborough, Capt, John Leeds, Wil- 
liam Denison, Capt. Cary Latham, Capt. William Morgan, 
John Masters, Edward Sterling, John Dymond, Benjamin 
Shopeley, and Capt. Frangois Michel, an exile from France in 
1740. Mrs. Brown was born in the heroic and patriotic 



104 Prominent Women of Texas. 

village of Groton, Connecticut, in whose cemetery repose since 
1684 (the first interment) to 1895, eleven generations of her 
relatives, including her father, Capt. David Mitchel, and her 
mother, Lucy Avery. Mrs. Brown was partly educated in 
Connecticut, and completed her course by three years' attend- 
ance upon Franklin Academy, long since Harford University, 
Pennsylvania. Recent publications of that institution speak 
of her, Miss Mary F. Mitchel, as possessing one of the bright- 
est minds that ever graced that seat of learning. After leav- 
ing Pennsylvania, Miss Mitchel visited a brother then living 
in Missouri. There she met, and on the 9th of July, 1843, 
married, John Henry Brown, of Texas, then on a visit to 
his native place, Ashley, Pike County, Missouri. 

In the intervening fifty-two years she has been a faithful 
daughter of Texas, sharing at different times the vicissitudes 
of a new country. During the Civil War, her husband, and 
sometimes both sons (Julius R. and Pierre M. Brown) were 
in the army. After the war, the entire family passed five 
years in Mexico, principally in the "Texan Valley," where 
Mrs. Brown, by her kind and gentle intercourse, so won the 
hearts of the Mexicans, that, when it was known she would 
return to the United States, they came from all directions, 
on ponies, in canoes, and on foot, to bid her farewell. 

On returning to Texas, the family settled in the village, 
now city, of Dallas, in July, 1871, where, on the 9th of June, 
1873, their eldest son, Julius R., died. Pierre Mitchel, the 
second son, on November 17, 1872, in Rome, Georgia, mar- 
ried Miss Miranda Smith. He died in Dallas, May 19, 1876. 
There are three daughters yet living. Clara (Mrs. Thomas 
B. Mitchel) has four children, and lives in Dallas. The other 
two are Misses Lizzie C. and Marion T. 

Mrs. Brown, after writing much in both prose and poetry, 
has compiled a " School History of Texas," now in its second 
revised edition, which has proved highly satisfactory as a 
standard work. 

The fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of this honored 
couple was celebrated at their home in Dallas, on the 9th of 
July, 1893, and was in every respect touching and beautiful. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 105 

Many were present who had known them from twenty -five to 
fifty years. I^etters of congratulation were sent from Con- 
necticut, New York City, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Ohio, 
Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, and Mexico. 

Mrs. Brown is a member of the General Society, Daughters 
of the Revolution, New York City ; and a member of the State 
Society of Texas. She has also been, for the past sixteen 
years, president of the Pearl Street Reading Circle. From 
the age of sixteen years Mrs. Brown has been a member of 
the Presbyterian Church. 

Mrs. Fannie Chambers Gooch, now Mrs. D. T. Igle- 
hart, of Austin, became known to the literary world through 
her book, "Face to Face with the Mexicans." Her genius 
has probably not reached its maturity, yet she has won a 
distinguished rank in the world of letters and to her must be 
conceded an individuality strongly marked in the sphere of 
original thought. Her gifts, both of creation and ex- 
pression, are pronounced in their character and are harmo- 
niously combined for effective work ; and if her circumstances 
in Ufe were such as to compel the constant exercise of these 
gifts, her fame would be assured and polite hterature glo- 
riously enriched. Mrs. Iglehart is a social genius, and many 
of her talents have been cut and polished to that end. She 
is blessed with a fine physique, a commanding presence, and 
subtle power, known as personal magnetism. In conversa- 
tion she has infinite tact and talent, and the faculty of 
bringing to the surface the best qualities of those who come 
within the radius of her influence. Although admirably 
accomplished, she has neither pretense nor pedantry, and 
moves with conscious ease in the parlors of the rich and the 
cottages of the poor, carrying with her the aroma of grace 
and sympathy. Her wit and repartee owes its sparkle to her 
Irish ancestry. Her great-grandfather was from a clan in 
Ireland, while from the maternal side she inherits the purity 
and lofty character of the Huguenot. Mrs. Iglehart is a 
native of Texas. Her book was the outcome of several 
years spent in Mexico, and contains an account of her own 



106 Prominent Women of Texas. 

experiences in trying to keep house and live the ordinary life of 
an American woman among the unbending conservatisms of 
Mexican conditions. " Face to Face with the Mexicans " has 
passed through numerous editions, and gone into many 
lands in its purpose of throwing light upon Mexican life and 
character heretofore unknown. Mrs. Iglehart has received 
letters of the highest praise and appreciation from the most 
noted men, both in this country and Europe, and the book 
is popularly on sale in several foreign countries, and in not 
less than twenty foreign catalogues it is to be found among 
the most valuable historical w orks. Its author has been 
made a member of many of the leading historical and scien- 
tific associations of both Europe and America, and among 
them she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Science, Letters, 
and Art of London, England, and others of equal fame 
abroad, while at home the American Historical Associa- 
tion and other State organizations have her name on their 
rolls. 

Mrs. Ella Willman, of Houston, has high rank among 
Southern authors. Her stories are the result of composite 
culture, advanced thought and original methods. A 
splendor of diction and a wealth of coloring render her 
literary productions unrivaled in the field of fiction. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Mrs. V. 0. King. — A cheerful spirit, a bright mind, and 
a wealth of varied learning — all in unstinted store — are treas- 
ures that adorn the daily life of this distinguished lady. 
Thus endow^ed, the world that knows her must be better for 
the knowledge. 

Reared in a luxurious home, w^here well-used competence 
refined the gifts it brought, where loving counsels led her 
infant feet, and where noiseless acts of Christian grace im- 
pressed her young, susceptive life, it but follow^s, as fruition 
follows flowers, that all her later sky should be tinted from 
the bow that arched the morning of her youth. And so it 



Prominent Women of Texas. 107 

has been in the years that have followed. The graces that 
nestled with her in the cradle have been the companions of 
her womanhood. 

Mrs. King was married at an early age to Dr. V. 0. King, 
then a young physician Just from the schools, and the two 
entered at once upon the untried scenes of youth and in- 
experience. The new home brought domestic joys, but the 
roughness of its surroundings gave little promise of social 
pleasure, while the doctor's frequent absence on his rounds 
of duty left the young wife to palliate her solitude as best 
she might. She took refuge in her books, and it Avas there 
she formed the plan of giving all her thought to solid, seri- 
ous, laborious mental work. Her husband's library guided 
her in her choice, and she chose the study of the Greek. In 
its pursuit she found the solace that she wanted, and she 
brought to bear upon her fascinating work a degree of en- 
thusiasm not often encountered in fields of purely literary 
adventure. Social and domestic duties only could draw her 
from her favorite books. She was sometimes diverted by 
little riots or street rencounters, in which the pocket artil- 
lery^ of that day and jjeople furnished the arms, but she 
gradually grew insensible to the disturbance, unless, per- 
chance, a stray missile should shatter a glass, or whistle 
through an open door. More than once she has stood, 
pistol in hand, holding at bay a frenzied mob, while her hus- 
band was within extracting a ball from the body, or setting 
the fractured limb, of some pursued and wounded foe. 

These scenes transpired before the war, and seem to have 
been preparing the people of that region for scenes of bloodier 
renown. On one occasion during this eventful period, the 
Northern troops, under General Banks, were in full retreat 
after their repulse at Pleasant Hill and Mansfield, and their 
route was through the village in which Mrs. King lived. Her 
husband was absent in the Southern army, her negro ser- 
vants had taken refuge among the invaders ; camp-followers 
and stragglers were pillaging unprotected homes along the 
line of flight; and she was left alone with her infant daughter 
in her house to protect it, as best she could, against the 



108 Prominent Women of Texas. 

intrusion of the spoiler. Hour after hour she stood, gun in 
hand, defying her aggressors. Her peril was at last reported 
to an officer, who gallantly came to her relief, applauded her 
courage, permitted her to retain her weapon, and placed at 
her disposal an efficient guard. This episode discloses a con- 
spicuous feature in Mrs. King's character ; it further serves 
to illustrate the intrepidity that is born of conscious right, 
and that is unsullied by servility. 

Interruptions like these did not lead Mrs. King away from 
the literary task that was before her. The years of the war, 
like those that preceded them, were traced by steady and 
unwearied steps toward the attainment of her simple pur- 
pose, and in the end she found herself— all unconscious of the 
honor — a victor worthy of the bays that crown a master's 
brow. The early text of the New Testament Scripture, the 
Iliad as it fell from Homer's lips, the story of the Peloponne- 
sian War as told by Thucydides, the dramas of ^schylus, of 
Sophocles and Euripides, the poems of Anacreon, the phi- 
losophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Cyropsedia and 
Anabasis of Xenophon — all in the vernacular of the ancient 
Greeks — were read and studied by her, and many of them 
translated into English. The Greek became to her a familiar 
tongue, but only as it was spoken twenty-five hundred years 
ago. A new ambition seized her; the modern or Romaic 
Greek must be acquired. The design was scarcely formed 
before events were so ordered as to favor its accomplish- 
ment. Her husband removed to New Orleans to practice his 
profession, where, very soon, he made the acquaintance of 
Father Gregorio, priest of the newly-organized Greek Church 
in that city. The Reverend gentleman was a scholarly man 
and deeply cultured in both the modern and the Hellenic 
literature of his country, but he knew not one word of 
English and he was thrown among people who knew not one 
word of Greek. When Mrs. King, therefore, proposed that 
he should become her teacher in the colloquial forms of his 
language, he was not loth to accept the charge. As the 
years went by, the interest of both pupil and preceptor daily 
grew with the progress they made, and when this rela- 



Prominent Women of Texas. 109 

tion ceased they talked together in his native tongue as 
freely as Greek might discuss with Greek the school of Plato 
in the grove of Academus. Some years later Mrs. King 
visited Greece — a pilgrimage as full of zeal as that which 
takes the faithful to the prophet's tomb — and on her return 
she declared that while at Athens she felt as much at home 
as she could feel in any American town. Her only present 
exercise in the language that so early fascinated her life, is 
the reading of a Greek newspaper that makes its weekly 
visits to her home. 

During Mrs. King's residence in New Orleans, she was a 
constant attendant at the meetings of the Academy of Sci- 
ences, where she became interested in the several sections of 
natural history, notably those of botany and entomology. 
To these she devoted her wonted energy, studying them es- 
pecially in their reciprocal and correlative aspect. Her sum- 
mer excursions to the North and West, and to Canada and 
the Lakes were made the occasions for observing plant and 
insect life in their natural homes, and for collecting valuable 
stores in the interest of her studies at home. Her researches 
in the valleys and tableland of Mexico also contributed to 
these accumulations. Her entomological studies resulted in 
the pubhcation of papers that gave her high rank among 
the specialists of the country, and brought frequent requests 
for articles from leading scientific periodicals. As the result 
of her study of the phosphorescent insects, she was the first 
specialist to describe, by actual observation, all the phe- 
nomena in the life history of the Pleotomus Fallens Lee, 
which description appeared in a monograph printed in 
Psyche, then published at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 
insect was captured, and its several forms of development, 
were observed, in the State of Texas, in which region alone 
it has been studied from the egg to the perfect animal, and by 
Mrs. King alone as the pioneer in this field. Her observa- 
tions were rewarded by the encomiums of scientists, and 
w^ere announced in the Canadian Entomologist, by Professor 
Leconte, the leading authority in America on this subject. 
In 1886 Mrs, King presented her collection of insects to the 



110 Pkojviinemt Women of Texas. 

Smithsonian Institution, since which time she has done no 
active work in entomology ; she then accompanied her hus- 
band to the Repubhc of Colombia, to the government of 
which he was accredited under a federal commission. 

The long journey up the Magdalena River and the slow 
ascent of the Andes Mountains, gave preliminary aids to the 
work that awaited Mrs. King upon the lofty summits in the 
plains of Bogota. Here the English is an unknown tongue, 
the French an accomplishment of the better classes, and the 
Spanish the only medium of intercourse among all the peo- 
ple. Mrs. King's thorough acquaintance with the French, 
added to some elementary knowledge of the Spanish gleaned 
in her visits to Mexico, soon enabled her to acquire the latter 
language, and press it into the service of her ever active, ever 
receptive, mind. She took delight in the literature of South 
America, in the story of her progress, and in the productions 
of her scholars. Among the latter she formed congenial friend- 
ships, and through them enjoyed privileges usually denied the 
stranger — not least of these was free access to well-filled 
libraries of native books. Being attracted by a charming 
original novel, entitled "Maria," written by a brilliant 
native author, she resolved to translate it for the enjoy- 
ment of the English-speaking world. This she accomplished, 
only to discover, however, that she had been anticipated by 
another, and the unpublished manuscript is still in her 
hands. She also translated many of the beautiful stories of 
Mme. Soledad Acosta de Sempere, the most gifted woman of 
her country. 

Turning from these purely literary labors, Mrs. King again 
took the field of Natural History in search of new discoveries. 
She closely studied the records of the original researches of 
Caldas and of Mutis, and learned from them of regions and 
of secrets still unexplored around her. Thirsting for knowl- 
edge, she sought its fountains upon every hill-top, and in 
every valley. While in this pursuit she was led by the 
trend of her inquiries to investigate the cinchona tree, more 
important in its relations to man than any other growth 
found in the flora of the continental tropics. The result of 



Prominent Women of Texas. Ill 

this study was an elaborate and exhaustive treatise on the 
habit, growth, development, qualities, and varieties, of this 
interesting product of the South American forest. 

When Mrs. King returned to the United States, laden with 
her spoils of new knowledge, she rested from the labors of 
her active life, and addressed herself to the task of arranging 
her literary stores preparatory to the serene enjoyment of 
the harvest she has reaped and of a happy retrospect of the 
fields in which she has labored. These pleasures bring glad- 
ness to her cottage home in the picturesque city of Austin, 
and they breathe into its daily life a spirit of contentment 
that is only born of a mind enriched with learning, chas- 
tened by experience, and touched by a charity that "rejoiceth 
in the truth. ' ' In this cheery and peaceful retirement she keenly 
enjoys the presence of her friends, though from it she has 
banished all the exacting cares of social life. She is at pres- 
ent a member of two learned societies, composed of Austin 
ladies distinguished for their attainments. 

Mrs. King is a native of Louisiana, and her maiden name 
was Helen Selina Lewis. Her American ancestors came to 
this country early in the seventeenth century to escape 
oppression and find a home in the wilderness of the New 
World. Their descendants took divergent routes. A branch 
of these migrated to Virginia, where one of its sons married 
into the family of Washing-ton. Another branch from which 
Mrs. King is descended went from Connecticut to the furthest 
South, and from this branch sprang Mrs. King's grand- 
father, who was territorial judge of Mississippi, and after- 
ward district judge of Louisiana. 

Mrs. King has one daughter, the wife of Judge J. H. Mc- 
Leary, of San Antonio, who has richly inherited the bright- 
ness and cheerfulness of her mother, and both of them are 
blessed in Mrs. King's four grandchildren. 



CHAPTER XYII. 

MRS. BELL HUNT SHORTRIDGE — MRS. FLORENCE DUVAL WEST — 
MRS. M. E. M. DAVIS — MRS. MARY DANA SHINDLER. 



Mrs. Bell Hunt Shortridge, poet and novelist, was 
remarkable for her intellectual gifts and personal loveli- 
ness. Texas claimed Mrs. Shortridge with pride as one of its 
most talented daughters, though she had transplanted her 
energy and rare versatility to New York. Through contri- 
butions to Frank Leslie's, the Sun, the World, and other 
discriminative publications, she perceptibly broadened the 
scope of her influence. During her residence in the North she 
wrote several novels, among them "Held in Trust," and a 
book of poems entitled "Lone Star Lights." In this collec- 
tion the exquisite production, " Peach Blossoms," is perhaps 
the rarest gem in her literary casket, though much of her 
work achieved popularity and endeared her to Southern 
readers. 

It is when we review her tribute to Texas, "land of her 
birth and soul's intensest love," "that we meet the writer 
face to face upon the fair and sunny fields of her own proper 
domain, and feel the magnetic sympathies of the woman." 
The request for "one heart's smile" of recognition from 
those of her own State was abundantly granted, for in Wise 
County, where she had lived, she enjoyed a popularity more 
like a princess in her hereditary province, in whom her people 
claimed a sort of ownership. Here one meets "Bell Hunts" 
who were named in her honor, and the black "mammy" who 
belonged to the old regime, who relates with pride her im- 
portant share in "Miss Bell's bringing up." Here the early 
settlers touchingly refer to her untimely demise and to her 
beauty, dwelling with something better than pride upon the 
traces of her influences. She longed to speak to the "per- 

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Prominent Women of Texas. 113 

sonal heart," and this homage is an assurance that the 
people were 

"Not too busy, empire-building child, 
To loiter, dallying with her blossoms wild, 
And her pretty little heart songs." 

Mrs. Florence Duval West. — Mrs. West was born 
September 1, 1840, in Tallahassee, Florida, of which State 
her paternal grandfather, William P. Duval, was Governor. 
In 1845 she came to Austin, Texas, with her father, Thomas 
H. Duval, who successfully practiced his profession of the 
law until 1857, when he was appointed United States Dis- 
trict Judge, filling the office with distinguished ability till his 
death. Two brothers of Judge Duval have also been con- 
spicuous in Texas history, B. C. Duval and John C. Duval. 
Both were in Fannin's army at the time of the brutal massa- 
cre on the memorable Palm Sunday of 1836, and both were 
led out to face the murderous fusillade. The former was 
instantly killed; the latter fell wounded and subsequently 
escaped, and in later life wrote entertaining sketches of his 
frontier experiences. 

At the age of nineteen, onherbirthday,Mrs. Westwas mar- 
ried to Charles S. West, a talented young lawyer of the Aus- 
tin bar, who won renown in his profession, filled a seat on the 
bench of the Supreme Court of Texas, resigned on account of 
ill health, and died October 20, 1885, surviving his wife 
nearly four years, she having died November 22, 1881. 
There were four children born in this marriage— a girl who 
died in infancy, and three sons, all of whom still survive, 
Robert G. West, Duval West and WilHam S. West, named in 
the order of their ages. The eldest two have adopted the 
profession of their father, in which they give promise of early 
and signal distinction. 

The conditions surrounding the childhood of Mrs. West 
early developed the qualities that dawned upon her preco- 
cious life. In a home nestled among the hills of the most 
picturesque of scenes, shaded by trees of perpetual verdure, 
lulled by the murmur of waters in perennial flow, adorned 
with flowers that hung from every vine, peeped from every 

p. W. of T.— 8 



114 Prominent Women of Texas. 

crevice, enlivened by music from feathered songsters on every 
branch, she learned to love the native blooms, and carol with 
the native birds. Here the first notes of her unformed voice 
gave notice of its future conquests. The poet President of 
the Republic, Mirabeau B. Lamar, the frequent guest of the 
child's charming home, was here entranced by the lisping 
melody of the little "Peri," and embalmed it in incense as 
pure as the warblings it echoes. He sang of the soft in- 
fluence that awakened her throat; of the 

"Sweet music that is heard in the bowers, 
The laughter that is sent from the rills ;" 

he pictured her spirit as "drinking the song;" he painted her 
eyes as weeping " at the notes as they fall ;" he sang of the 
wedlock of "genius and feeUng;" he gave to her life his best 
benediction : 

"Oh, long may the Peri bloom on, 

Still ever in gladness and love, 
And blend with her genius for song 

The feelings that light us above. 
" That life may be lengthened and blest, 
And sorrow may never enthrall, 
Must still be the prayer of each breast 
For fair little Florence Duval." 

And thus, at six years of age, prophecy hung upon the 
lips of the child and modestly predicted the triumphs of the 
woman. As age advanced her powers grew, and in the ma- 
turity of her years gave pleasures without stint in home 
and social life, both in colloquy and song. 

Mrs. West was no less endowed in richness of fancy than in 
richness of voice, and nature in her seemed to delight in the 
exuberance of her gifts. Her poetic compositions are numer- 
ous and always touching. She wrote as easily as one who 
plays with literature, and her unstrained verses have often 
the graceful negligence of Horace. In ' ' The Marble Lily, and 
Other Poems," as well as in her prose sketches embodied in 
"The Land of the Lotus Eaters," are found passages of 
exquisite touch and of irresistible pathos. In them glows the 
sympathy that abounded in her life, that makes manifest 



Prominent Women of Texas. 115 

the sorrow so keenly felt at her death, and in them are em- 
bedded the sentiments of love that have builded up the 
monument of affection to her memory. 

Mrs. M. E. M. Davis. — The father of Mrs. Davis was 
John Moore, a native of Massachusetts, and she was born 
in Alabama, from which State she was brought in her 
infancy by her parents to Texas, and by them reared in 
Hays County on the picturesque banks of the San Marcos 
River. There in the midst of enchanting scenery, under the 
witchery that lurks in soft shadows, and splashes in cool 
waters, her budding genius dwelt in a state conducive to its 
growth. It mellowed with nature's other forces, and before 
even the season of childhood had passed it had ripened into 
power. At nine years of age she wrote a little poem, and so 
delighted were her parents at the promise it gave, that they 
forthwith began her education and development. At four- 
teen appeared her first published verses, and from that age 
to the present time she has regularly written for the press 
and other periodicals. In 1868, she collected her pieces in 
her first pubhshed volume entitled "Mending the Gap, and 
Other Poems," and, at intervals of two years each, pub- 
lished two other editions of the same, both greatly improved 
and enlarged. Among the best known and most admired 
of Mrs. Davis' short poems are" Going Out and Coming In," 
"San Marcos River," "Stealing Roses Through the Gate," 
" Pere Dagobert," " Throwing the Wanda," " Lee at the Wil- 
derness," and a few others found in most collections of Amer- 
ican verse. A critic said of her a few years ago that she was 
"more thoroughly Texan in subject, in imagery and spirit 
than any of the Texas poets," and that scarcely any other 
than a native Texan could " appreciate all the merits of her 
poems, so strongly marked are they by the peculiarities of 
Texas scenery and patriotism." 

As a prose writer Mrs. Davis attracts as many readers 
and as much admiration as when she indulges in her delight- 
ful verses. Her short stories, such as " The Song of the Opal," 
" TheSoul of Rose Dede," " A Miracle," have been flatteringly 



116 Prominent Women of Texas. 

received, and a volume of Sketches entitled "In War 
Times at La Rose Blanche," has elicited such commenda- 
tions from the press as to call for a French translation for 
the columns of La Revue des Deux Mondes. Her recent novel 
''Under the Man-Fig," is described by a late reviewer as "a 
tale at once strongly dramatic, clean and artistic," while 
her work generally is described by the same writer as being 
"characterized by a keen sense of humor, a fine restrained 
pathos and a delicate play of fancy." 

Mrs. Davis was married in 1874 to Mr. T. E. Davis, for 
many years interested in the Houston Telegram, and now 
connected wdth the Picayune of New Orleans, in which city 
they live, and where Mrs. Davis is remarked in intellectual 
centers as a most interesting literary personality. 

Mrs. Mary Dana Shindler, one of the most famous 
writers of her day, came to Texas in 1865, with her second 
husband, the Rev. Robert D. Shindler. Her first husband 
was Charles E. Dana, of New York. Her earliest book was 
a volume of poems called "The Southern Harp." This 
was followed by "The Northern Harp," "The Parted," 
" Young Sailor," and " Forecastle Tom." Her husband died 
at Nacogdoches, 1874, and two years later she published a 
book on spiritual phenomena. During a temporary residence 
in Memphis, she edited The Voice of Truth, a journal de- 
voted to the interests of spiritualism and reform. Mrs. 
Shindler was the daughter of Rev. Benjamin M. Palmer. She 
was born in South Carolina in 1810, and died at Nacogdo- 
ches in 1883. 

She selected some of the most popular airs and wedded to 
them the poems which were the result of her own sorrow and 
domestic bereavement. Music thus immortalized her verse, 
and through life many of her sweet strains will be remem- 
bered. The following lines, "Pass Under the Rod," was one 
of Mrs. Shindler's most popular songs: 

I saw a young bride in her beauty and pride, 

Bedecked in her snowy array, 
And the bright flush of joy mantled high on her cheek, 

And the future looked blooming and gay. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 117 

And with woman's devotion she laid her fond heart 

On the shrine of idolatrous love, 
And she anchored her hopes to this perishing earth, 

By the chain which his tenderness wove. 
But I saw, when those heartstrings were Weeding and torn, 

And the chain had been severed in two ; 
She had changed her white robes for the sables of grief 

And her bloom for the paleness of woe, 
But the healer was there pouring balm on her heart 

And wiping the tears from her eyes; 
He strengthened the chain he had broken in two 

And fastened it firm to the skies. 
There had whispered a voice, twas the voice of her God: 
I love thee ; I love thee ; pass under the rod. 

I saw the young mother in tenderness bend. 

O'er the couch of her slumbering boy, 
And she kissed the soft lips as they murmured her name 

While the dreamer lay smiling in joy. 
Ah ! sweet is the rosebud encircled in dew 

When its fragrance is flung on the air. 
So fresh and so bright to that mother he seemed, 

As he lay in his innocence there. 
But I saw, when she gazed on that same lovely form, 

Pale as marble, and silent and cold ; 
But paler and colder her beautiful boy. 

And the tale of her sorrow was told. 
But the healer was there who had stricken her heart 

And taken her treasure away. 
To allure her to heaven as he placed it on high, 

And the mourners will sweetly obey. 
There had whispered a voice, twas the voice of her God: 
I love thee; I love thee; pass under the rod. 

I saw a fond father and mother who leaned 

On the arms of a dear gifted son. 
And the star in the future grew bright to their gaze, 

As they saw the proud place he had won ; 
And the fast coming evening of life promised fair. 

And its pathway grew smooth to their feet. 
And the starlight of love grew bright at the end 

And the whisperings of fancy were sweet. 
And I saw them again bending low o'er the grave 

Where their heart's dearest hope had been laid. 
And the star had gone down in the darkness of night 

And the joy from their bosoms had fled. 
But the healer was there and his arms were around 

And he led them with tenderest care. 
And he showed them a star in the bright upper world, 

Twas their star shining brilliantly there. 
They had both heard a voice, twas the voice of their God: 
I love thee; I love thee; pass under the rod. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MRS. WILLIE FRANKLIN PRUIT — MRS. J. J. JARVIS — MISS 

LENA LEE CRAVENS — MISS MIRIAM MYERS — 

MRS. JOSEPHINE PUETT SPOONTS. 



Mrs. Willie Franklin Pruit. — In the "Poets and 
Poetry of Texas," published in 1885 by Sam H. Dixon, Mrs. 
Wilhe Franklin Pruit, then Miss Willie Franklin, is referred 
to as a writer in whom "Is discerned the poetic spirit," and 
as a "gifted young poet," whose verses inspired the hope 
that she might "enroll her name among the few real poets 
in America." Ten years have passed since this tribute was 
paid to the genius and potential powers of Mrs. Pruit, and 
these ten years have only served to increase the honest fervor 
of her biographer. The test of time has given broader com- 
pass to the voice of praise, and it has proved that the flat- 
tering prediction of the past, whether fully realized or not, 
was not the idle vaticination of a partial pen. 

Mrs. Pruit is a native of Tennessee. Her family was 
closely identified with the social and political aristocracy of 
the State before the war, and, at its close, she moved to Texas 
and settled in Washington County. There, at the Baylor 
University, Mrs. Pruit's school education began, and it was 
continued and finished at the Waco Female College, and in 
her native State. 

For many years before the Franklins came to Texas, 
their sympathies had gone out to its people in their heroic 
struggle for independence. These people were their country- 
men, but, tenderer tie than all, one of them was their near 
kinsman and a valiant actor in the struggle. This was the 
gallant Capt. John C. Hays, he who gave such yeoman serv- 
ice to the Republic in the hours of its greatest need. It will 
be remembered that his was the spirit that fired the intrepid 
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Prominent Women of Texas. 119 

scouts, who held the forefront of danger in times of greatest 
peril; that he it was, who, six years after Santa Anna's 
fall, brought on the fight that ended in the route of Woll 
and his invading hosts ; that he it was, who made the Texas 
rangers a mighty bulwark between the frontier settlements 
of the West and their enemies beyond the Rio Grande ; that 
it was he who raised and led the first regiment of Texans for 
active service in the war with Mexico — a war the outgrowth 
of the annexation of Texas to the other States. All these 
events, inseparably linked with the name of the famous 
Texas ranger, endeared the Franklins to the land for which 
he fought, and which he helped to make more glorious. Not 
surprising then that, when in later years the ties of the old 
home were sundered by convulsions of civil war, they should 
direct their steps to the land that to them was consecrated 
by such pathetic memories. 

Prior to her marriage in 1887, Mrs. Pruit was a resident 
of Waco; after that event she moved to Fort Worth, her 
present home, to which city she has proved an accession of 
notable value. She is a worker in matters of municipal reform, 
and is an active participant in measures for the moral and 
physical comfort of the masses. One of the social schemes, 
born of modern philanthropy, with which she is closely iden- 
tified is fully set forth in the declared purposes of a society 
appropriately named "The Woman's Humane Association," 
of which she is the president. Its object is to provide needed 
benefits, both for individuals and for the community at large; 
in work of the latter class its most conspicuous achievement 
is the free distribution of pure drinking water throughout the 
city for both man and beast. In carrying out the design, 
several handsome stone fountains have been erected, which, 
apart from their usefulness, are attractive adornments of the 
city. 

Mrs. Fruit's literary work indicates a versatile and cul- 
tured writer, and meets with ready acceptance from papers 
and periodicals noted for their critical exaction. Her contri- 
butions, both prose and verse, usually appear over the pseu- 
donym of Aylmer Ney. She is a member of the Texas 



120 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Woman's Press Association, and at one of its late meetings 
read a poem that appears to have enraptured her audience 
and seems to have firmly fixed her title to a niche in the 
pantheon of Texas poets. 

It is remarkable that in the twenty-five centuries between 
Sappho and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, so few women have 
achieved distinction in the domain of poetry, as compared 
with the number who have excelled in the other fields of polite 
learning. The present epoch of hterary progressiveness 
seems, however, to have put a period to this reproach; 
women now climb with their brothers to the classic heights 
of Parnassus, and quaff with them deep draughts of its Cas- 
talian waters. And why should it not be so? Poetry is 
woman's peculiar province; it is the expression of pure 
thoughts in soft words that appeal to feeling and to fancy, 
and it is born of an inspiration that lurks familiarly in the 
heart of every cultured woman. In the ages gone by she 
closed her eyes to her peculiar work ; in the age of her oppor- 
tunity she has opened them. Like the Galatea of Pygmalion, 
so poetically referred to in one of Mrs. Pruit's verses, she 
"slept in stone," she " woke to love." 

Mrs. J.J. Jarvis. — Ida Zan Zandt, the daughter of the 
Texas patriot and statesman, the Hon. Isaac Van Zandt, 
and the wife of Senator J. J. Jarvis, is one of the gifted wo- 
men of Texas who has made her noble life an idyl of duty. 
She was blest with a parentage of rare worth, and a mother 
of excellent judgment in the rearing and education of her 
children. 

Her mother, Mrs. Isaac Van Zandt, was left a widow in 
1847. Three years before the death of her father, and while 
he filled the position of minister to the United States from 
the infant Republic of Texas, Ida was born in Washington 
City. 

Returning to Texas after two years' residence in Washing- 
ton, Mr. Van Zandt was a candidate for the office of Governor 
of the State, but died during the campaign, leaving five little 
children to be reared and educated by their mother. Mrs. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 121 

Van Zandt was a noble woman, a Lipscomb by birth, and 
equal to the stern duties before her. Last March she cele- 
brated her seventy-ninth birthday in Fort Worth. Proud, 
indeed, must Mrs. Yan Zandt feel of her distinguished 
daughter. 

Mrs. Jarvis was given educational advantages at Franklin 
College, Nashville, Tennessee, but graduated at the age of 
sixteen from the Masonic Female Institute in Marshall, Texas. 
She was married to Mr. Jarvis, at that time holding the 
office of District Attorney, in 1866, living in Quitman until 
1874, at w^hich time her husband moved to Fort Worth near 
which place they have lived ever since. The Jarvis home, a 
splendid old-style mansion, is known for the unostentatious, 
judicious and noble hospitality which is dispensed there in 
the manner of the Southerner of the old regime. During the 
first six years of Mrs. Jarvis' married life while living in Quit- 
man in that isolation which the wife of a young lawyer must 
of necessity lead while her husband is absent on "the circuit" 
in the practice of his profession, she became the mother of 
several children, and the writer of her book of "Texas 
Poems," or the greater part of it. But it was not until the 
war w^as over that the poem "Thanksgiving" was written. 
She says of this : "That was the first poem I ever sent to 
an editor for publication, and he barely escaped arrest for 
printing it." 

Her literary work is the finished production of a student, 
inspired by a touch from the wing of genius. Her "Texas 
Poems " are dedicated to her husband, Senator Jarvis. She is 
a member of the Christian Church, has taught for six years a 
large class of boys, from fifteen to twenty-one years of age, 
in Sunday School; has helped several young preachers to 
obtain an education ; has been a co-worker with her husband 
in building up Add-Ran Christian University, of which he has 
been president of the board of trustees for five or six years. 
Mrs. Jarvis has been president of the Ladies' Associated 
Charities of Fort Worth since its organization, and she is 
one of the executive committee of that beneficent organiza- 
tion. The Texas Students' Aid Association. 



122 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Miss Lena Lee Cravens. — Saintly and beautiful beyond 
expression becomes that life which, chastened by "the bruis- 
ing flails of God's afflictions," turns to the divine inspirations 
of art and poesy for its daily consolations. Such is that of 
the pure-souled, young Lena Lee Cravens, who, though lead- 
ing a hidden life under the shadow of the cross, gives the 
radiant wings of hope and love to the children of her brain, 
her poems, paintings, and music. 

As yet she has not published the first, nor exhibited the 
second, and her music is only for those who have the benison 
of her intimate friendship. But hers is not a name to be 
"written in water," and even if the child of genius, the gifted 
worker, dies in early life, like Keats, the work lives, goes on, 
and creates one of "those immortal names that are not born 
to die." 

For Miss Cravens a brighter fate than that of Keats may 
be anticipated. With the consciousness of the possession of 
a gift not to be despised, must spring up a hope in the soul of 
one who, though living the most uneventful life, can find 
every day full of interest, a hope that, like that of Adelaide 
Proctor, another suffering soul, will tide her over the waves 
of apprehension and depression. Those were the cruel bil- 
lows that made dirge-like the song of her who sang: " I'm so 
tired, my heart and I," Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She 
who, deserves the title of " England's greatest woman poet." 

Miss Cravens lives a life of retirement among her books, her 
music and her triune-art loves of poesy, song and painting, 
at her home in Whitesboro, Texas, where her distinguished 
father. Col. N. S. Cravens of the Confederate army, lived 
after his emigration to Texas fi'om Georgia, and who died 
there in 1875, after having won the laurels of fadeless fame 
as a patriot, a soldier of stainless honor, a lawyer of ability 
in his native State, Georgia, and a State senator in the land 
of his adoption. 

A direct descendant of that General Pierson who fought 
under Washington in the Revolutionary War, and tracing her 
lineage through an ancestry on both the paternal and ma- 
ternal sides of her house distinguished for inteflect, character, 



Prominent Women of Texas. 123 

education and refinement, Miss Cravens is all that might be 
expected from a child rockedinthecradleof family traditions. 

Miss Miriam Myers. — ^Miss Myers is a Jewess of Eng- 
lish descent and her father is a Rabbi. In her social and 
domestic life as well as in the discharge of her daily offices 
and duties she display's the warmth of attachment, the firm- 
ness of purpose and the strength of character that belong- 
peculiarly to her remarkable race. Like the more alert and 
intellectual of her wonderful people, she has traveled much. 
No "pent-up Utica" could satisfy her eagerness in its desire 
for the world's progressive fields, no more than could the 
restive spirit of her great ancestor, the son of Terah, be con- 
fined Adthin the "Ur of the Chaldees" or bound to the 
patriarchal cradle. Born at Melbourne in Australia, she 
successively lived in England, Canada, New York, Kentucky, 
North CaroUna, Virginia, and finally in Texas in the city of 
Waco which is now her home. 

Miss Myers was educated in Montreal and New York city 
where her fine talents found their proper sphere in the realm 
of belles-lettres. Upon emerging from the schools, she formed 
literary engagements with the most prominent Jewish papers 
in the United States, embracing the American Israelite, of 
Cincinnati, the Reform Advocate, of Chicago, and the Hebrew 
Standard of New York, besides writing for the World, the 
Sun, the Recorder, Current Literature, and other first-class 
periodicals of the country. A competent critic, in passing 
upon her work, says of her that she " writes wdth ease, grace 
and strength," and in reference to her poetic composition, 
that she "excels in verse." Those familiar with Miss Myers' 
productions will heartily endorse this verdict, and those who 
enjoy the further pri\ilege of her personal acquaintance ^Aill 
testify to her broad views and careful culture, and to the 
charms of her discourse alwa}- s richly laden A\ith the fruits 
of travel, of study and of reflection. 

Mrs. Josephine Puett Spoonts. — The poem "April," 
pubhshed in a number of the Confederate Veteran, gave its 



124 Prominent Women of Texas. 

author, Mrs. Josephine Puett Spoonts, considerable recogni- 
tion among literary people. The production received favor- 
able editorial comment and elicited many inquiries. Gen. 
Marcus J. Wright, of the War Records office at Washington, 
D. C, and others, wrote flattering letters of congratulation 
to the talented author. There is an undercurrent, a vivid in- 
dication of latent force and feeling in Mrs. Spoonts' verse, that 
should leave its impress upon the pages devoted to Texas 
poetry. Still she has never been a voluminous writer, or, per- 
haps, not sufficiently free from other duties to identify herself 
in any way with regular literary work. The early years of 
her life were passed uneventfully amid the rural surroundings 
of Bell County. The songs she sings are reproductions of 
those to which she listened in her childhood, the echoes of na- 
ture in the old tangled forest, where every sunny bank was 
sweet with flowers and resonant with the droning music of 
the wild bee. The dreams of life were perchance ideal ; the 
semi-hypnotic influences that environed her are to be traced 
in her verse, and add delicacy and beauty to the pages of her 
prose. Her literary taste is a direct inheritance fi^om her 
father, who, through service in the Confederate army, became 
an invalid. Early in life Mrs. Spoonts sustained the loss of 
both parents. Her home is now in Fort Worth, where her 
husband, Mr. M. A. Spoonts, is engaged in the practice of law. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

JOURNALISM IN TEXAS. 

MRS. LYDIA STARR m'pHERSON — MRS. S. ISADORE MINER — MRS. 

HUGH NUGENT FITZGERALD — MRS. EVA LANCASTER — 

MRS. AURELIA HADLEY MOHL — MISS M. B. 

FENWICK — MISS BESSIE AGNES DWYER 

— MISS SARAH HARTMAN. 



Mrs. Lydia Starr McPherson. — From the puny 
"Gazetta" of the sixteenth century to the mammoth "Daily" 
of the present day, and all through the intervening cen- 



Prominent Women of Texas. 125 

turies of its evolution from the monad to the giant, the 
newspaper has been an untiring agent in the diffusion of 
human knowledge, and, in the years of its later devel- 
opment, a powerful engine in the enforcement of human 
liberty. Legions of able workers have brought their best 
gifts to the altar of this humanizing and enlightening ma- 
chine, and among them, especially in more recent times, are 
enrolled the names of women from all the higher walks of life. 
Though the display of their intellectual powers may be some- 
thing new in this particular field of work, their faculties as 
writers are conspicuous in the literature of all civilized nations 
of both ancient and modern times. Twenty-five hundred 
years ago the JEolians were the exponents of Hellenic learn- 
ing, and Lesbos the principal seat of ^Eolian culture. In this 
classic island maids and matrons were not, like their prede- 
cessors, restricted to the ignoble duties of domestic life. 
They were active in all the intellectual pursuits of their 
countrymen; they were organized in bodies for literary ad- 
vancement ; under their influence and instruction were trained 
the best minds of that day, in fact, they gradually assumed 
the intellectual burdens of the people, and became the staff 
on which the nation leaned. The annals that have come 
down to us rarely mention the name of a man in connection 
with the culture of the Lesbians, and when, as Felton ob- 
serves, such mention is made it is due to the distinction, as is 
generally the case with the husbands of famous women, of 
his being the husband of his wife. To such a height of mental 
superiority had the application of the women raised them 
above their brothers that the latter, awakened by the jeers 
and jests of the surrounding-nations, sought at last in sundry 
ways to discourage the unilateral progress, and thereby re- 
store the equilibrium of the sexes. The stage, among other 
means, was employed, and Aristophanes, the gi-eat comedy 
writer of the adjacent Republic of Athens, came to the rescue 
of his bewildered brethren in Lesbos. He wrote for their 
benefit the play called "Ecclesiazousa," or Women in Con- 
gress assembled, in which, with unsparing satire and in pas- 
sages aglow with sparkling wit, he describes his heroines 



126 Prominent Women of Texas. 

arrayed in male attire and leagued together in conspiracy to 
usurp the government of their fathers. The great poet's 
production was wonderfully applauded, and has been ad- 
mired in all the ages since; but, although it quickened the 
men into something like intellectual life, it failed to allay 
the spirit of the women, or turn them away from the temples 
of learning in which they had so long been permitted to 
worship. From that day to this, a large number of the 
sisterhood of all ages and countries, when not restrained by 
the force of custom or law, have asserted their common 
heritage of mental gifts and multiplied them by all the means 
within their reach. In all the strata of human learning, from 
the surface to the primitive rocks of its foundation, they are 
found delving after the riches of knowledge. Thus they have 
forced the gates of journalism, and are everywhere engaged 
in the broad field that it opens to them. Among these is 
Mrs. Lydia Starr McPherson, of Sherman, Texas. 

She is a native of Ohio, from which State she removed with 
her parents to Iowa, where she was married to David Hun- 
ter and became the mother of five children, of whom three are 
sons, all practical printers. Her husband having died, she 
entered into second nuptials with Granville McPherson. As- 
sociated with him, as assistant editor of The Oklahoma Star, 
she began her journalistic career at Caddo, in the Indian Terri- 
tory, in 1874. Her connection with this paper continued two 
years, during which her experience was enriched by manj' in- 
cidents of thrilling interest. In 1877 she came into Texas 
and established The Whitesboro Democrat at the town of the 
same name in the county of Grayson. Two years later she 
moved her paper to Sherman, the county-seat, where, under 
the name of The Sherman Democrat, she has continued to 
edit it to the present time. It has a daily and weekly edition, 
and is published under the direction of her sons, Granville 
and Chester Hunter, who are its owners. 

At the time of her advent into Texas, Mrs. McPherson, 
was the only lady who owned and edited a newspaper in the 
State, and this anomalous condition drew from the press a 
general fusillade of humorous and pointed paragraphs. Mrs. 



Proaiinent Women of Texas. 127 

McPherson, however, was but little disturbed by these playful 
assaults, and continued to advance in the face of the enemy. 
She became a member of the Press Association, was elected 
its corresponding secretary, and a few years later was sent 
as one of its delegates to the World's Press convention as- 
sembled at Cincinnati. In 1885 she was appointed honorary 
commissioner to the World's Exposition at New Orleans, and 
in the year following she was appointed postmistress at Sher- 
man, and held the position for four years. At the expiration 
of her term of service she began an extended tour through 
the Western and Pacific States, during which she wrote en- 
tertaining letters of travel for the columns of The Sherman 
Democrat. 

Though a widow for the second time, Mrs. McPherson has 
not permitted the sorrows of her double bereavement to de- 
press or diminish the euergy for which she is distinguished. 
She has written and published a book of poems entitled 
" Reullura," and she has now ready for the press two novels, 
and another book in verse; and, in the midst of all this 
literary work, she has never ceased to be an active contribu- 
tor to the paper she founded, besides collecting and mould- 
ing material for other works she has in contemplation. 

In her religious beliefs Mrs. McPherson subscribes to the 
doctrines of Theosophy, a system w^hich, as its name implies, 
makes the disciple wise in the knowledge of God. The theoso- 
phist, through processes of his own, attains a spiritual con- 
dition that admits him to a closer communion with the 
Source and Dispenser of all light, whereby truth is received as 
a direct revelation, and the soul is exalted to the functions 
of a teacher and interpreter of the divine laws. In the realms 
of this philosophy, Mrs. McPherson's thoughts love to dwell, 
and in the contemplation of its sublime lessons her restless 
mind finds the only repose in which it is indulged during the 
mellowing age of her active and eventful life. 

Mrs. S. Isadore Miner. — The only woman in Texas who 
has ever been honored by a temporary seat in the presidential 
chair of an assembly composed exclusively of men is Mrs. S. 



128 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Isadore Miner. The Texas Press Association was the source 
of this compliment, and her reading of an appreciated paper 
before that body was the occasion. 

Mrs. Miner came to Texas two years ago ; prior to that, 
with the exception of a two years' newspaper engagement at 
Toledo, Ohio, she had passed her whole life in Michigan, of 
which State she is a native. On arriving in Texas she im- 
mediately took service on the staff of the Dallas Daily News 
and the Semi-Weekly Dallas and Galveston News, editing the 
society columns of the first, and the Woman's and Children's 
Department of the other. Vastly important is this dual 
service on which she has entered, and rare must be the powers 
that can evoke the rich results that lie buried in its field of 
labor. Social functions, in their progressive course, are vital 
factors in society's resistless evolution, and they are often in- 
fluenced by the critic's timely counsel. A word of wisdom 
wisely given is a grain that falls in good soil and brings forth 
savory fruit. No less vital in its influence is the guiding hand 
that leads the infant's feet and holds to infant lips the food 
that he should eat. The modern plans for children's culture 
have opened up exhaustless fields from which to glean the 
nourishment proper for tender and expanding minds. A 
mental diet wisely chosen and skillfully prepared builds up in 
the young a nature pure, strong, and free from guile. In both 
her spheres of action, Mrs. Miner has thus far displayed the 
aptitudes that are only found in minds endowed with native 
powers of observation and enlarged by philosophic reflec- 
tions upon the experiences and vicissitudes of life. In 
this light her future work has the promise of an abundant 
reward. 

As an adjunct to her system of conducting the Chil- 
dren's Department of the News, Mrs. Miner employs the plan 
that has been elaborated from the Chautauquan idea. During 
the vacation months of the little ones, she teaches, through her 
columns, a "summer school," keeping alive the children's 
interest in the studies they have temporarily laid aside with- 
out infringing the rest so necessarj' to recuperate their bud- 
ding powers. Competitive examinations and the awarding 



Peo3iinent Women of Texas. 129 

of prizes give zest to the plan and render it, not only popu- 
lar, but productive of the best results. 

Mrs. Miner's labors in behalf of the young have not been 
restricted to newspaper work. Her productions in the field 
of juvenile literature are found in several of the prominent 
children's magazines of the day, and she has written, with 
and without collaborators, seven books devoted to the in- 
struction of children. 

Mrs. Miner is a member of the State Press Association, of 
Texas; of the Texas Woman's Press Association, of which 
she is vice president; of the Toledo Press Club, and of 
the Michigan Woman's Press Association, which she helped 
to organize. She is also one of the organizers, and secretary 
of the Texas Woman's Council, by which she was lately 
chosen one of its delegates to the National Woman's Council, 
to represent the interests, the progress, and the culture of 
her sex in the State of her adoption. 

Ten years altogether is the sum of her journalistic experi- 
ence, and in that time she has made a record of activity and 
accomplishment that might easily cover a period of twice 
that score of years. The mere enumeration of her labors and 
of her affiliations with literary bodies indicate the purpose 
and energy of her life ; the list of her achievements the meas- 
ure of its success. 

Mrs. Hugh Nugent Fitzgerald, nee Alice M. Par- 
sons, is the daughter of Dr. R, F. Parsons of Iowa, and a 
native of that State. Her paternal ancestors came over 
with the Puritans and settled in Maine, and her mother's 
family were among the first settlers of Virginia. She was 
educated in the schools of Iowa and finished at Vassar Col- 
lege on the Hudson. She married Hugh N. Fitzgerald, a 
South Carolinian and journalist, in 1879, and is the mother 
of three children. At an early age she wrote short stories 
for the newspapers and for the Household and other 
periodicals. In 1883 she determined to become a trained 
journalist and since that period has been connected with 
some daily paper. Was three years literary, society and 

p. W. of T.— 9 



130 Prominent Women of Texas. 

exchange editor of theSedaMa Morning Democrat and regular 
correspondent to the daily papers of St. Louis and Kansas 
City. She came to Texas with her family in 1889 and was 
for four years in charge of the literary and society depart- 
ments of the Dallas Times Herald, under the management of 
C. E. Gilbert, which was in those years regarded as the lead- 
ing afternoon newspaper in the State. During the World's 
Fair Mrs. Fitzgerald spent several months in Chicago as 
special correspondent for the Times Herald and Dallas Star, 
as well as furnishing weekly letters for a number of leading 
Northern papers. 

For two seasons she was in charge of the social depart- 
ment of the Dallas News and also on its daily assignment 
list, but resigned on account of ill health. The summer of 
1895 she passed in Colorado as the correspondent of the 
Fort Worth Gazette, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City 
Journal and Denver Republican. During her visit there she 
also contributed to the Manitou Society Journal and the 
daily papers of Colorado Springs, and was selected to write 
up the great flower parade of Colorado Springs for the spe- 
cial carnival edition of the Daily Telegraph. Mrs. Fitzgerald 
is a trained reporter, and abl}^ fills assignments in any de- 
partment of the daily newspaper, although her specialty is 
society reporting, in which she is especially happy, having 
been reared in that atmosphere, possessing a keen sense of 
the beautiful and artistic, and ever keeping herself en rap- 
port with the forms, frills and flutters of Le Beau Monde. 
She has traveled extensively in this country, and is well 
known in the journalistic circles of the North and East. She 
is the regular society correspondent from Dallas of the Fort 
Worth Gazette and the Globe Democrat, and during her hus- 
band's absence last winter at Austin filled his place as spe- 
cial correspondent for those papers, the New York World 
and several other metropolitan dailies. 

Mrs. Eva Lancaster. — Among the pioneer newspaper 
women of the State, the oldest is Mrs. Eva Lancaster, of San 
Antonio, who has reached the age of seventy-five years, her 



0- 










m- 



MRS. EVA LANCASTER. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 131 

useful life having been largely devoted to active literary pur- 
suits. At the time of her marriage, more than half a century 
ago, her husband was publishing and editing the Stnte Advo- 
cate, in Carroll County, Mississippi. They came to Texas in 
1848, and established a widely known paper, the Texas 
Ranger, in Washing-ton. At this period Mr. Lancaster took 
an active interest in political affairs, which necessitated his 
frequent absence from the office of the Ranger. Much of the 
editorial work and general supervision devolved upon Mrs. 
Lancaster, who guarded the best interests of the enterprise. 
Many letters of congratulation and encomiums were received, 
for in the South, previous to 1866, it was unusual to 
see a lady thus engaged, and the editor of the Ranger was 
almost alone in her vocation. Lincoln's proclamation was 
read to her in her office. Almost immediately her husband 
augmented the forces, and the Ranger was left entirely to her 
management. When the trying times of conscripting arrived 
and the paper's last printer was put in rank, she called in 
idle boys from the streets and put them to cases, publishing 
half a sheet until the boys had learned to set type. Her 
servants worked the hand press, rolling slow but sure, and 
she was thus enabled to disseminate the latest war news. 
Gen. E. Kirby Smith, being advised of the situation, detailed 
two printers from the trans-Mississippi department, who in 
time appeared to render her valuable assistance. 

When the war closed the Ranger was published at Nava- 
sota. Mrs. Lancaster's husband died in 1874, after which 
she discontinued the publication of the paper. Mrs. Lancas- 
ter was a native Georgian, the daughter of Mr. Franklin 
Barnett, and a near relative of Mr. N. C. Barnett, the secre- 
tary of that State. Her mother was Miss Ann Briscoe, 
daughter of Dr. John Briscoe, a prominent physician of 
Augusta, Georgia. 

Mrs. Aurelia Hadley Mohl has the masculine endur- 
ing cast of mind which grows better with age. She began 
her career as a professional journalist in 1863 and is still 
actively engaged in newspaper work, having been a member 



132 Prominent Women of Texas. 

of the editorial staff of the Houston Post since 1892. She 
has devoted herself to the performance of her duties with the 
energies of a strong will, and the fidelity' of conscientiousness; 
to these qualities she unites great vivacity of temperament. 
Her literary productions display a broad, easy mastery of 
the resources of language, a grace and fluency, the result of 
her liberal culture and long experience. Mrs. Mohl was 
prominent in organizing the Texas Woman's Press Asso- 
ciation, and during her residence at the National Capital 
held the position of corresponding secretary of the Woman's 
National Press Association, and later was elected vice pres- 
ident of the Texas division. For thirteen years she served 
as Washington correspondent for the Houston Age, San 
Antonio Herald, Waco Examiner, Dallas Commercial, Dallas 
Herald, and Texas Siftings. Her writings also appeared in 
the Youth's Companion (Boston), New York Examiner, 
Philadelphia Times, Chicago Standard and many other 
papers. In 1866 Mrs. Mohl Avt'ote a remarkable story, "An 
Afternoon Nap," in which she predicted a number of future 
inventions, one of which has been realized in the telephone. 
Her exquisite poem, "An Army with Green Banners," is 
familiar to the readers of "Gems from a Texas Quarry;" 
while among her essays specially worthy of mention are 
found "Homes of Poetical Quotations," "Sir Philip Syd- 
ney," and " Soup, Salad and Civilization." Mrs. Mohl's duties 
on the Post have been performed mth peculiar facility, 
for her long residence in Houston has given her a wide 
acquaintance and an extensive influence. She came to this 
city at a very early age, and this residence has only been in- 
terrupted during the years spent in Washing-ton and two 
years in Europe, whither her husband, ]\Ir. Frederick Mohl, 
was sent during the war as agent for the Confederate govern- 
ment. Mrs. Mohl became a member of the Baptist Church of 
Houston, in 1846, and it was here she was married in 1851 
by Rev. Rufus C. Burleson, then pastor of that church. 

Miss M. B. Fen wick has contributed essentially to 
the tone and stamina of journalistic work in Texas. She 



Prominent Women of Texas. 133 

has written considerably for Kate Field's Washington 
and other Northern papers, while as special correspondent 
for various publications her pen sketches have proven de- 
hghtfully humorous and lifeUke. Miss Fen wick has acquired 
an extensive acquaintance with the literature of the day, and 
has correct taste and discrimination. Aside from her pres- 
tige as a ^vriter, she is rich in the finer quahties of mind and 
heart, w^hich vnn for her innumerable friends. She is justly 
the recipient of many social courtesies at her home in San 
Antonio, where she meets the requirements of a responsible 
position on the staff of The Express. Miss Fenwick was 
originally from Ohio. 

Miss Bessie Agness Dwyer is the author of two re- 
markable stories, "Mr. Moore, of Albuquerque," and "A 
Daughter of Eve." Her many sketches of army life and 
vivid word painting of scenes in two Territories, as well as 
in Old Mexico, won immediate recognition. Her work bears 
the impress of her artistic and dramatic talent. Even in 
early life her histrionic gifts were remarkable and dominated 
amateur circles in Texas. Her many literary gifts were an 
inheritance from her father, the late Judge Thomas A. 
Dwyer, who was associated with the early history of Texas 
and the Rio Bravo. Miss Dwyer at present fills a position 
on the staff of the National Economist, Washington, D. C, 
and she is correspondent for some of the prominent Southern 
journals. Her home is in San Antonio. 

Miss Sara Hartman is well known in literary and jour- 
nalistic circles in the Southwest as a graceful writer, an 
editor of judgment and marked ability, and a progressive 
and successful business woman. She was for several years 
the editor and principal proprietor of The Gulf Messenger, 
a magazine of literary merit, published in San Antonio, 
Texas. Miss Hartman's father, John Jacob Hartman, came 
originally from Berne, Switzerland, and her mother, Sarah 
Bradfield, from Oxford, England. Miss Hartman is by birth 
a Canadian, having been born just over the border, at 



134 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Niagara Falls. She began her career as a Journalist b\^ 
accepting a position as "assistant editor and society re- 
porter" on the little evening paper pubUshed in St. Cath- 
arine's. Three years later she accepted a place on the staff 
of the Trenton, New Jersey, True American, and since that 
date has devoted her time and talent to literary pursuits. 
She has many friends in this State, who admire her conversa- 
tional gifts, her attractive presence and sunny nature. 



CHAPTER XX. 

EDUCATORS. 

MRS. WILLIE D. HOUSE — MRS. MARY LOUISE NASH- 
MISS S. L, LAMBDIN — MRS. S. R. BEEBE 
— MRS. R. O. ROUNSAVALL. 



Mrs. Willie D. House. — The faculty of imparting 
knowledge is a gift developed by training, and enriched 
by study and observation. In this faculty inheres the 
magnetism that impels attention, and the persuasive force 
that commands obedience; when supplemented by cul- 
tured speech as the vehicle of ripe thought it is irresistible 
in its dominion over the young mind. Like other gifts of 
nature, it is given to the few and, in its inchoate state, 
is the "one talent" of the parable, whose value lies in its 
increase, and whose increase is wholly in the power of the 
possessor. The favored few do not always have the wisdom 
to develop and enrich their inheritance. Rare, indeed, there- 
fore, do the annals of education celebrate a teacher in whose 
life has dominated the perfected genius of instruction. So 
rare are these instances, and so worthy of renown have they 
been held, that they are found embalmed in even the legends 
of the ages of fable. Silenus was the preceptor of Bacchus, 
and Phoenix taught Achilles. They are also found in the 
earliest records of authentic history. Socrates taught Plato ; 
Aristotle taught Alexander; and Pythagoras was the in- 
structor of Numa Pompilius, Rome's second king. Orbilius 



Prominent Women of Texas. 135 

— the flogging Orbilius — Horace's teacher, is remembered, not 
for his virtues or his talents, but for his brutal methods of 
instilling knowledge. From Quintilian, in the first century, 
and Alcuinus, the teacher of Charlemagne, in the eighth, and 
down through the conventual schools of the Middle Ages to 
the present era of advanced didactics, scarce half a score of 
truly great teachers have lived in each of the twenty centuries 
of educational experience. Modern progress in all the arts 
of life, especially the modern system of normal instruction, 
will henceforth enlarge and dignify the labor of school 
teachers, and give to their well-earned fame the recording pen 
of history. Already the work has begun, already the field is 
filling with earnest, gifted and learned instructors, and 
already is the current literature of our day fixing them upon 
its page for the applause of future generations. Among 
these instructors, none are surer of their reward than Mrs. 
Willie D. House of Waco, Texas. 

Mrs. House is a native Texan, born in Austin County. 
Her father, Doctor Durham, in 1843 emigrated from Georgia 
to the Republic of Texas, where he married Mrs. Pridham, 
who, in her early youth, had come to the great West. He de- 
scended from a stock distinguished for its military service in 
defense of the country — his great grandfather having served 
in the American revolution, and his grandfather in the War 
of 1812. He died when his only surviving child, Mrs. House, 
was twelve years of age, and his widow now lives with this 
daughter. Mrs. House's education began in the country 
schools of Washington County, where she qualified herself for 
teaching and training the youth of her section. In this, the 
beginning of her useful career as an instructor, she displayed 
the qualities that in her maturer experience attained excep- 
tional growth and vigor. After three years of self-discipline 
in the schoolroom, during which she closely analyzed her 
inherent fitness for the vocation of a teacher, she resolved 
upon the arduous business as the pursuit of her life. This 
resolution was followed by her matriculation in the Peabody 
Normal of the University of Nashville, where she took the 
prescribed course, and with it the degree of Licentiate of 



136 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Instruction. She was also honored with the Peabody medal, 
a token and a memorial of the school's recognition of superior 
excellence in all its departments. After her graduation, she 
returned to Texas where her reputation for scholarship and 
force of character had preceded her, and, as a tribute to her 
high order of ability, she was assigned by the State Board 
of Education to the charge of summer normal work, in the 
interest of which she conducted sessions atMineola, Victoria, 
Marshall, and Lampasas. She was subsequently called to the 
responsible duty of conducting the primary and geographical 
departments at the capital of the State. After retiring from 
this service, she accepted a position in the city of Tyler, where 
she taught until tendered the principalship of one of the ward 
schools of the city of Waco. After laboring three years in 
this new service, she was promoted to the superintendency of 
all the city schools — a position that but once before in the 
State of Texas had been filled by a woman. This high trust 
was discharged with conscientious ability, and with such 
scrupulous regard to discipline and method of instruction 
that, during her administration, and since, the public schools 
of Waco are noted for their order, their attractiveness, and 
the marked proficiency of their pupils. 

Mrs. House is an active member of the State Teachers' 
Association, of which she was at one time the vice president, 
and of which she is now the secretary. She is also the vice 
president of the Central Texas Teachers' Summer Normal 
School of Waco, and is otherwise connected with educational 
schemes looking to the moral and intellectual enlighten- 
ment of the present and future generations of children in 
Texas. 

Mrs. House was married at the tender age of sixteen, and 
is the mother of one child, a daughter, Miss Lola Belle 
House, who graduated with honor, being the valedictorian of 
her class, and is now treading the footsteps of her dis- 
tinguished mother, both as a student and a teacher. Both 
mother and daughter are, in their religious beliefs, inclined to 
the Presbyterian faith. Mrs. House, though qualified to 
adorn the highest social station, is seldom seen outside the 



Prominent Women of Texas. 137 

haunts of domestic and professional life. Ruskin once said 
that a man should first fit himself for society and then keep 
out of it. Mrs. House seems to have acted upon his advice. 
In the true spirit of altruism, she forgets her own pleasures 
in the performance of duties for the happiness of others. In 
her conversation freshness pervades every expression, and 
she is never betrayed into the utterance of a trite or hack- 
neyed sentiment. Like Richter, if she is in possession of a 
commonplace thought, she keeps it an awful secret to herself. 
Her mental structure is strength, energy and aggression, and 
her features are its true interpreters. Her mien, her manner, 
and her movement proclaim her one of nature's leaders, and 
nobly has she led her little followers in the cause of human 
improvement and progress. Most successfully has she worked 
in the past, most worthily is she struggling with the problems 
of the present, most unselfishly is she sowing the seed for the 
harvest of the future, and, though in the ages that are to 
come her name may not be remembered, her work, like a 
benediction, will be silently felt in the blessings it has invoked. 

Mrs. Mary Louise Nash, an educator in the strictest 
sense of the w^ord, was born in Panama, New York, 1826. 
She came of the old Puritan stock who were famous at 
Lexington and Bunker Hill, which entitled her to a certifi- 
cate as a Daughter of the Revolution. 

Marj Brigham, founder of Mt. Holyoke; Eli Whitney, 
inventor of the cotton gin; and the renowned Charlotte Cush- 
man,are found on the branches of the same genealogical tree. 
She loved books from childhood, and received a thorough 
education. She married a Southern gentleman, who was 
engaged in teaching, and for many years they were at the 
head of the best Southern colleges. At the close of the war, 
requiring a change of climate, they came to Sherman and 
established the Institute, a chartered school for girls, where 
Mrs. Nash still presides as lady principal. Amid the varied 
duties of her profession she has preserved her love for literary 
pursuits, and has for many years published a school monthly 
of decided merit. She has been pronounced a genius as a 



138 Prominent Women of Texas. 

dramatist, and takes delight in exercising her talent in this 
direction, while her achievement as a scientist has brought 
that department of her school up to the standard of the finest 
educational institutions in the South. She supervises her 
literary societies; has Agassiz, a chapter of the W. C. A., as 
well as a Shakespearean club ; and is a graduate of the C. L. 
S. C. class, 1890. 

Mrs. Nash has proven herself a ruling power in favor of 
the higher culture for women, that has been felt throughout 
the South, and Texas will never cease to appreciate the 
influence of the noble women who turn to Sherman Institute 
as their Alma Mater. 

Miss S. L. Lambdin has been well and favorably known 
as an able, earnest and successful educator since she began 
teaching in the Waco Female College in 1857. Many and 
widely dispersed over the State are those who have received 
from her their intellectual training and to her former pupils 
in their distant homes, her salutar^^ precepts recur with great 
power. Cultivated and disciplined by her training, strength- 
ened by her faith in the finer qualities of their nature, they 
remember her efforts with feelings of gratitude that deepen 
as time passes. Among her earliest pupils maybe mentioned 
Mrs. E. A. McKinney, Mrs. Warwick Jenkins, Mrs. Kendall, 
Mrs. Sul Ross of College Station; Mrs. Bob Ross, Mrs. 
Killingsworth, Mrs. Marshall, Mrs. Parrott, Mrs. Davis 
Gurley, Mrs. Mannahan of Pecos; Mrs. Judge Battle, Mrs. 
J. H. Harrison, Mrs. Chas. Stuart of Houston and Mrs. 
Padgitt. 

Mrs. S. R. Beebe has achieved success as an educator, 
her aim having been to found character in pupils, and in- 
fluence for good all those by whom she has been sur- 
rounded. She has a monument in the hearts of many friends, 
having devoted the best efforts of her life to her profession, 
efl^ciently training the mental faculties of Texas students 
during the past twenty -five years. Nearly all of this period 
she has occupied the Dosition of principal of female semi- 




MRS. R. O. ROUNSAVALL. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 139 

naries, and of one of the large public schools in Galveston. 
She came to this State in 1859, and will be remembered as 
Miss Hapgood, having taught during the war in Houston and 
Washington, and later in Galveston, where she was married, 
in 1867, to Mr. Henry J. Beebe, a wholesale merchant of New 
Orleans. After a brief residence in that city she returned to 
Galveston. The demise of her husband left to her care three 
young children : Inez F., who now follows her mother's voca- 
tion; Pauline, who died a month after her graduation, in 
1890 ; and Dee, an artist. 

Mrs. R. O. Rounsevall has distinct individuality, 
which stamps her as a woman of rare powers. With the 
capacity to adapt herself to circumstances, she quickly mas- 
ters any situation inw^hich she is placed, and controls, rather 
than follows, the will of others. Her success as a musical 
director and as an educator is a proof of energies omnip- 
otence. For many years the Waco Female College was 
under her direct supervision, and this responsibility, as may 
well be imagined, entailed on Mrs. Eounsevall severe self-de- 
nial and unremitting exertions. Her position w^as adorned 
by the attractions that brighten and elevate society, and 
strengthened the influence of a college distinguished for the 
abihty and scholarship of its instructors. Since resigning 
her duties as an educator, she has been solicited to devote 
her energies and labors to various institutions of learning. 
In resuming the hospitalities of her home, Mrs. Rounsevall 
has been liberal in her welcome to the lovers of art and liter- 
ature. Accustomed herself to these high and pure enjoy- 
ments, she has sought to give the same pleasure to others, 
and her entertainments have a more elevated character than 
those of fashion. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

PHYSICIANS. 

MISS MAEGUERET HOLLAND — MISS JOSEPHINE KINGSLEY- 
AIRS. FANNY LEAK — DR. GRACE DANFORTH. 



Miss Margueret Holland, M. D. — The medical profes- 
sion in Texas holds in its ranks many women of fine learning 
and conspicuous ability. Among these is Dr. Margueret Hol- 
land, of Houston, in which city she has, for more than 
twenty years, been actively engaged in the practice of her 
profession. 

She is of Irish descent, and was born in Newburyport, 
Massachusetts. In her infancy she was left an orphan, and 
adopted by Jacob Powell, with whom she was reared in the 
State of Illinois, and by whom her early education was pro- 
vided and directed. After a course of four years in the 
Woman's Medical College of the Northwestern University, at 
Chicago, she graduated with distinction, and at once em- 
barked upon her professional career. 

As a general practitioner, DoctorHolland is called upon to 
mix with all classes, and is, consequently, well known among 
the people. By them she is held in high esteem, and by her 
patrons she is greatly revered for knowledge and skill in her 
calling. She enjoys the respect of her confreres, and with 
them holds frequent conferences and consultations in the in- 
terest of their common duties among the afflicted. 

In her political acts and expressions. Doctor Holland 
evinces a penetrating interest in all that concerns the public 
welfare, yet she is not so blindly attached to partisan creed 
or ritual as not to see the errors of its friends or the merits 
of its opponents. In the gynecian sphere of politics, her views 
are, of course, fully abreast with those of the most enlight- 
ened leaders of her sex ; they are never, however, obtrusively 

(140) 




MARGUERET HOLLAND, M. D. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 141 

expressed, nor does she believe that female suffrage and its 
concomitant power will alone bring back the Eden from 
which our parents were driven. 

Miss Josephine Kingsley entered the medical school of 
the University of Michigan in the first class of female students 
ever admitted to that department. She graduated in 1873, 
and, after a brief visit in the East, began the practice of med- 
icine in Detroit. Here her skill as a practitioner brought her 
immediate and desirable recognition. In 1878, she located 
in San Antonio, w here she is well and favorably known as a 
progressive physician. Doctor Kingsley is devoted to her 
chosen field of labor, and is a faithful and strong advocate of 
the progressive work of her owm sex in every branch of science 
and art. Having been brought in contact with suffering, and 
studied its alleviation, her thought has broadened into the 
subjects that engage philanthropists, while her conversation 
is tinctured with an interesting knowledge of life's phases 
and problems. She is a native of Michigan, was born in the 
County of Chautauqua, famed for the beauty of its scenery. 
Her girlhood was spent in sight of Lake Erie and near 
Lake Chautauqua, though San Antonio is now the home of 
her heart and the field of her useful labors. 

Dr. Fanny Leak, who is especially interested in the tem- 
perance cause, is one of the finest specimens of womanhood 
among our " Prominent Women of Texas." That she is as 
quick witted and intelligent as she is attractive may be 
judged from the ready answer she once gave a bald-headed 
gentleman who was betrayed by his admiration into a frank 
compliment of her personality. She replied : 

" Sir, there must be truth in what you say, since there is 
not a hair's breadth between your head and heaven." 

On another occasion, at a Medical Association, a lady 
friend, an M.D., w as introduced by a masculine M. D. as Mrs. 
. Doctor Leak soon found an opportunity to intro- 
duce this gentleman to the Association, and with perfect 
good humor, prefixed the title of " Mrs." to his name. 



142 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Dr. Fanny Leak exhibits bright intellect, professional abil- 
ity and feminine force of character. She was born in Bath 
County, Kentucky. Her parentage on both sides was of old 
colonial Virginia stock, her mother being an Elliott, of that 
family who bore the Elliott coat of arms of England, but 
whose patriotism and devotion to the cause of liberty was 
proved by a loan of $300,000 to the colonial government to 
aid in the struggle against the aggressions of the mother 
country. Her great grandfather on the paternal side was 
Maj. Jesse Daniel, who served under General Jackson in the 
War of 1812. 

Doctor Leak, though proud of her Kentucky birth and 
pre-revolutionary lineage, is prouder still of the State upon 
whose soil she has been reared, and where she has been edu- 
cated, at Baylor University. She was a graduate in medi- 
cine, in 1887, from The Woman's Medical College of Chicago, 
a department of the Northwestern University of that city. 
She has been eminently successful as a practitioner, and is 
frequently called in consultation with the most prominent 
regular physicians. 

Her home in Austin is one of the material results of her 
professional labors. There she lives and finds her reward in 
the society of her four lovely daughters and a large circle of 
appreciative fi'iends. 

Dr. Grace Danforth was widely known and one of the 
most capable physicians in the South. She was a graduate 
of the Woman's Medical College of Chicago, and was ap- 
pointed assistant physician in the Lunatic Asylum at Terrell, 
the first appointment of a woman to such a position by the 
Legislature of Texas. A writer of conspicuous ability, her 
valuable contributions— scientific and social— added to her 
prestige. She labored untiringly for the advancement of 
her sex, and for the interest of humanity. In the zenith of 
her mental power she died from hemorrhage of the brain 

" Rich in the world's opinion, and men's praise, 
And full of all we could desire, but years." 



Hi 



\ 



-*^ 




MRS. KATE De PELCHIN. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

MRS. KATE DE PELCHIN — MOTHER ST. PIERRE. 



Mrs. Kate de Pelchin was a sister of charity without 
veiled or votive declaration of the fact. Her sainted life 
of sixty-two years was spent in faithful, heroic service for 
others, and suffering mortals knew no kinder ministrations 
than she brought to the pillow of pain. Having been trained 
to literary pursuits, as well as being a skillful musician, she 
chose the greater privilege to preside where pain wept its 
requiems, to evoke the divine harmonies : sympathy, solace, 
consolation. This was nobly demonstrated when her devo- 
tion illuminated the dark years when the yellow fever and 
smallpox held ghastly carnival in the city of Houston. She 
then became a faithful and successful nurse, toiling with un- 
tiring zeal during that long period of suffering ; and when, at 
last, the pall of affliction was lifted, she found her true voca- 
tion in the Stuart and Boyles Infirmary, where she labored 
four years. 

In 1878, when, again, "With soundless tread, the fearful 
pestilence, the fever, saffron-eyed, came forth again," and the 
city of Memphis was a vast morgue, this accomplished and 
devoted woman was one of the first to respond to the appeal 
for physicians and nurses, watching by the sick and the 
dying wherever she found a victim or was called to a 
post of duty; neither failing nor faltering on her sublime 
way. 

Returning to Houston, she resumed her duties at the Infirm- 
ary until 1888, when she was elected matron of the Bayland 
Orphans' Home. A year later she made a modest beginning, 
that ended in an established institution where" infants and 
young children of the city could be cared for. This charity is 
non-sectarian, and its founder christened it " Faith Home," 

(143) 



144 Prominent Women of Texas. 

because, as she wrote: "I have faith, and God and the good 
people to help." 

Again, Mrs. De Pelchin says, in one of her published let- 
ters: "I have been a matron of Bayland Home four years, 
and each day I am more impressed with the benefits such a 
home confers on lone and desolate children. Let us raise our 
own missionaries. When you send Bishop Key what he 
wishes for Japan, build an orphanage." 

Her recent death caused mourning throughout Houston. 
Memorial services were held in all the leading churches; places 
of business were closed ; while the Press called attention to 
her life, and issued a call for a mass meeting. It was then 
proposed that the cities of Houston and Memphis combine, 
and erect a statue to her memory, as New Orleans had 
erected to " Marguerite," the friend of poor children. 

After mature deliberation, it was decided, as more consist- 
ent with her own unselfish character, to erect a building to 
be known as "Faith Home," and thus perpetuate her noble 
example by carrying out her own work. 

Many richly endowed colleges and charitable institutions 
attest the generositj^ of the wealthy ; but this woman, like 
one of old, gave her all and herself to the work of establish- 
ing a home where the little children of the poor could be 
gathered in from the streets to a better life, to found this 
tender charity in the midst of a wealthy city. 

Everyone there, and in many other places, knew of her 
kindly ministrations, of her many deeds of self-sacrifice, with 
which she helped to swell the sum of sublime achievement. 

Mother St. Pierre, known in early life as Miss Margaret 
Harrington, was remarkable for her sound judgment and 
clear intellect. Her patience was tempered as Ebrons steel ; 
she was free from ambition, and great of soul. Bred of tender- 
ness and dowered with grace, she was beautiful with a loveli- 
ness that combined all of the w^oman and all of the angel — 
beauty which would have made Petrarch sing, and Dante 
kneel; for hers was the beauty of boundless beneficence. When 
the soldiers' graves are decorated in Galveston a detachment 



Prominent Women of Texas. 145 

wreathes the grave of Mother St. Pierre with flowers, and the 
News explains "that while she was not a soldier in the com- 
mon acceptation of the term, she was one of those ministering 
angels to whom the soldiers look in times of war, a Sister of 
Charity, who was in charge of the hospital here." It was in 
1861 when General Magruder was at a loss how to care for 
his sick and wounded soldiers, that he appealed through a 
chosen deputation to Mother St. Pierre, who may be justly 
regarded as the second foundress of the Ursuline convent at 
Galveston. She generously responded by placing at his dis- 
posal the boarding school department of the convent, which 
was in consequence termed "The Confederate Hospital." The 
good Mother and her devoted Ursuline daughters had thus a 
new vocation, as it were, thrust upon them by the sad con- 
sequences of war ; and their devotedness in this new field of 
action won for them the sweet title of "Sisters of Charity." 
When sickness comes, a man is shorn of pleasure, and becomes 
the sport of dreams, shadows, deliriums. Through his suffer- 
ings he often clings to life, hardly conscious of existence, the 
tide of thought so low that he no longer belongs to the world 
of creeds. This was the condition of Lieut. Sidney Sher- 
man, of Cook's regiment, who breathed his last supported 
by Mother St. Pierre's arms. Many other soldiers wounded 
at war, at last at war with themselves, and wretched, were 
sick, sick to the heart of life, until the Mother's ministration 
lulled them into dreamful slumbers from which they awoke 
to the consciousness of her skillful, tender care. Losing 
sight of their weariness to take the soothing draught from 
her hand and seeing her white coifed face during the broken 
visions that came in sleep, they drifted into convalescence 
where even the air seemed saturated with love and returning 
life, where the sweet sense of rest and comfort proclaimed 
the prodigality of the inexhaustible — where patient Mother 
St. Pierre possessing not a sovereign became the millionaire 
of good deeds. 

W. of T.— 10 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

TEMPERANCE LEADERS. 

MRS. HELEN M. STODDARD — MRS. ELIZABETH TURNER FRY — 
MRS. SARAH C. ACHESON. 



Mrs. Helen M. Stoddard. — The cause of temperance 
has, in the person of Mrs. Stoddard, an earnest, a constant 
and an efficient worker. She and her co-laborers, not only in 
Texas but throughout the Christian world, are apostles of 
the purest inspiration, teachers as faithful in the field of their 
work as were the Rechabites in the practice of their daily life. 
"Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye nor your sons forever," 
was the commandment of Rechab to his people, and they 
were obedient, even when tempted with the cup by the 
prophet of God. A newer commandment, and a more sacred 
one, enjoins "temperance" as one of the sublime virtues — 
akin to "godliness," to "faith," to "charity." Under the 
white banner of this later law the humblest followers of tem- 
perance reform are leaders in the crusade for the recovery of 
Christendom from the dominion of vice, and their army is 
marching in the van of civilization, every private a paladin, 
every paladin a hero. 

Mrs. Stoddard graduated from the Genesee Wesleyan Semi- 
nary of New York, in 1871, and two years later was married 
to S. D. Stoddard. She moved with her husband to Nebraska, 
where, after a residence of four years, his health failed, neces- 
sitating removal to a softer climate. Together they pro- 
ceeded to Florida, where within a year he died. Two sons were 
born of this union, of whom one lives — a promising youth — 
to comfort the life of his devoted mother. 

With Mrs. Stoddard's return to her home in Nebraska, 
began the active and toilsome season of her life. She took a 
position as teacher in the Nebraska Conference Seminary, 

(146) 



Prominent Women of Texas. 147 

which she filled for two years, then moved southward to 
Texas. In the latter State she taught ten years, of which six 
were passed in the Fort Worth University. While there she 
was called to the presidency of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union of Texas. This was in 1891, and she has been 
since then successively reelected at each annual meeting of 
the union. With a fervor ever renewed in the furnace of her 
consuming zeal, she has carried light and warmth into every 
corner of her allotted sphere. She has lectured and pleaded 
and preached at all times and in all parts of the State, and 
has recruited and organized some of the strongest forces 
in the army of reform. She has represented the union at 
National conventions, and has been twice a delegate to 
world conventions. At the meeting in London and at the 
Grindelwald conferences in Switzerland and France she was 
conspicuous, not only for her general ability but for her 
loyalty to the section she represented, and for the forceful 
manner in which she presented it to the favor of her listeners. 
To Mrs. Stoddard is also due the praise of being largely 
instrumental in securing the enactment of the law making 
scientific temperance instruction a part of the public school 
curriculum of the State. In connection with this achieve- 
ment in legislation may be mentioned another, quite as 
salutary in its results and infinitely more affecting in regard 
to the helplessness of the victims to be rescued. This was the 
amendment of the law to protect the purity of little girls, 
whereby the age of consent was raised from twelve to fifteen 
years. In behalf of this measure Mrs. Stoddard gave the best 
powers of her mind and her uninterrupted presence near the 
legislature until its full and final passage. 

Mrs. Stoddard holds opinions Avith a strength of convic- 
tion, and utters them with a force of expression that gives to 
her an interesting personality in almost every possible train 
of thought. She is a communicant in the Methodist Church 
and, for many years, has taught classes in its Sunday 
Schools. She entertains well-considered views on all ethical 
questions, and is strongly imbued with the privileges and 
responsibilities of her sex in their relation to the social and 



148 Prominent Women of Texas. 

political duties entailed upon all the race alike. Her strug- 
gles for survival in the daily contests of life were inspired by 
a native self-assertion capable of unlimited endurance and 
opposition. These, combined with her experience and her 
knowledge of human nature, have developed in her the 
energy of character and quickness of apprehension that have 
distinguished her among the foremost women of her age. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Turner Fry was born in Trenton, Ten- 
nessee, on December 22, 1842. Came to Texas in 1852 with 
her parents, who settled in Bastrop. In 1861 she met Lieut. 
A. J. Fry, married him a year later and moved to Seguin. 
In a few years they accumulated ample means, and with a 
family of three sons and one daughter, located permanently 
in San Antonio, where Mrs. Fry occupies a prominent posi- 
tion in religious and philanthropic work. Her energy, com- 
bined with self-command, tact, and mental endurance, places 
her in the front rank as a successful organizer in every pro- 
gressive, liberal field. The indispensable aggressive force and 
"staying power" she possesses, with the courage of her con- 
victions to a marked degree, yet, the simjjle dignity of her 
Christian character serves to retain the regard, respect and 
confidence of those who differ materially wdth her in opinion. 
During the Prohibition campaign in Texas in 1887, Mrs. 
Fry, by her pluck, ready utterances, brave position, pecuniary 
aid and personal sacrifice in defense of those principles, forged 
a way to public and general admiration. The influence she 
used in the city of San Antonio opposing that debasing pub- 
lic sport, a bullfight on Sunday, was effectual. Floating 
flyers were w^afted into every door to influence the minds of 
their occupants. They were addressed to "all motfhers" 
and emphasized the wickedness and degenerating tendencies 
of such displays, which awakened citizens to the need of sup- 
pressing them. The bullfight failed to materialize, and 
since that date none has ever occurred in San Antonio. 
With wealth to use freely, Mrs. Fry has displayed a helpful 
spirit, and is ever ready to aid merit or need. As a prominent 
member of ten benevolent societies she has kept up a vast 



Prominent Women of Texas. 149 

correspondence. Yet these duties have never defrauded her 
family of her thoughtful care. She has won admiration by 
the results attained in the conduct of her children. Mr. Fry 
died the 23d of September, 1892, and this irreparable loss, 
which produced great changes in her financial condition, com- 
pelled her to bring into practice the undeveloped, yet inherent 
qualities of self-reliance. Mrs. Fry has adopted the principles 
and guidance of the Christian Church, and was instrumental 
in 1883 in building the first Missionary Christian Church in 
San Antonio. She contributed to its erection, organized the 
Sunday School, called a convention of women in 1886 or 
1887 in Trinity M. E. Church (where the W. C. T. U. meets), 
Mrs. M. R. Wells of Tennessee, being invited to be present. 
Although not a suffragist, yet Mrs. Fry advocated those 
ideas; and the labor this effort entailed, with the opposition 
she met from the pastor of the church, forced her to take a 
decided position in a letter printed in the columns of the San 
Antonio Express. This firmness bore its fruit in a very suc- 
cessful three days' convention, and was the initiatory step to 
organization. Mrs. Fry held the office of State Superin- 
tendent of Franchise for eight years, and has been the chair- 
man of Central committee during the past year. She was 
vice president of the board of Texas for the World's Exposi- 
tion, and president of the local board, also vice president of 
the Queen Isabella board of the 10th district of Texas. She 
was appointed as delegate to the national convention of the 
W. C. T. U. in Boston, in 1891. As chairman of the Central 
committee of the Equal Rights Association of the State of 
Texas, her work has been faithfully performed. She attended 
three political conventions at Dallas, Waco, and another 
near Taylor, asking that a suffrage plank be placed in their 
platform. The Equal Rights club meet in her parlor weekly, 
and she as president keeps the topics of interest to women 
before the organization. As a charter member of the Protes- 
tant Orphans' Home, she helped in its organization. In 
April, 1895, a committee was appointed to organize a home 
for friendless girls and women in San Antonio. It has been 
incorporated, and Mrs. Fry is one of the charter members. 



150 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Her influence will be given to assist this commendable in- 
terest in every way possible, and it mil enjoy the benefit of 
her wdse counsel. Thus her benevolent and Christian im- 
pulses are finding full scope. 

Mrs. Sarah C. Acheson. — Mrs. Acheson was born in 
Washington, Pennsylvania, on the 20th of February, 1844 
and was there married at the age of nineteen to Captain 
Acheson, of the same town. This event took place during 
the late Civil War, while the Captain was at home on sur- 
geon's leave, at which time he was attached to the staff of 
General Miles, of the Federal army. In 1872 Captain and 
Mrs. Acheson moved to Texas. 

She is descended, through her father, from an English and 
Dutch ancestry that immigrated to Virginia in 1600, and, 
through her mother, from Col. George Morgan, Superintend- 
ent of Indian Affairs, under Washington. It was by this 
officer that Jefferson was first informed of the "mad proj- 
ect" of Aaron Burr, which early information is referred to 
by Jefferson in a letter now in possession of Mrs. Acheson. 
Among other distinguished progenitors of the Revolutionary 
period she can point, with ancestral pride, to Col. William 
Duane, the patriot editor of the Philadelphia Aurora. 

Mrs. Acheson's home is in the thriving town of Denison, 
where she is greatly revered for her active benevolence and 
her earnest advocacy of social reform. The fame of her 
"good works" is not, however, bounded by the narrow 
limits of her town. The field of her endeavor is coextensive 
with the field of human suffering within her reach. When 
the little village of Savoy, in a neighboring county, was 
swept by a tornado, that will be long remembered in that 
region, she was among the first to reach the scene of wretched- 
ness and desolation, and she lingered near the ruins until the 
dead and the wounded, and the hungi-y, and the houseless, 
were given every Christian care. She labored for the love of 
humanity; her reward was the abiding memory of a "good 
work." Instances like this might be multiplied, but this will 
suffice to illustrate the manner of her work. Like the chari- 




MRS. SARAH C. ACHESON. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 151 

table raan of Samaria, her philanthropy discerns neither 
creed nor condition. While the priest and the Levite may 
pass a fallen sufferer on the wayside she stops to bind up his 
wounds, be he sinner or alien, and she shelters and feeds him 
that he perish not in his misery. This is the religion taught 
by the Master— the religion practiced by all His disciples. 

Mrs. Acheson has given three years of active service to the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, and during one presi- 
dential term was the presiding officer in Texas. 

To ameliorate the condition of mankind, to encourage 
and stimulate reform, to promote the best methods for the 
advancement of civilization, and to abate human suffering in 
every sphere of life, are the subjects that seem to fill her 
daily thought and study, and to the contemplation of these 
subjects she brings a mind matured by reflection, and a heart 
filled with a desire to be "fruitful in every good work." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

MRS. M. K. CRAIG — MRS. A. C. HARRISON— MRS. ANNA DIAL 

HEARNE. 



Mrs. Mary Kitrell Craig was born in Mississippi. She 
is a descendant of the Normans and McLeods, and her an- 
cestors have all been Southern men and women. In 1860 
she graduated at the Wilcox Female Institute, in Camden, 
Mississippi, and made her debut when the American sky grew 
dark with the coming storm. The war brought many ex- 
periences that were trying without precedent, and this period 
of severe trial moulded her character and developed her 
mind. It was then she began her career as an educator. She 
has taught for thirty-six years and numbers among her 
pupils men and women of families, and is teaching, like Old 
Nestor, the third generation. The secretary of State of Ala- 
bama, and a former minister of Westminster Presbyterian 
Church of Dallas, the president of the Capitol Seminary, 
Atlanta, Georgia, and other teachers and ministers are 



152 Prominent Women of Texas. 

among her former pupils. For five years she was president 
of the Synodical Female Institute at Taladega, Alabama. 
One year she taught literature in the Oxford Male and 
Female College in Alabama, one year in Fort Worth, Texas, 
and a number of years in Dallas. During this period she has 
been a progressive student — studied in Chicago, New York, 
and with Dr. Rolfe the noted Shakesperean scholar of Cam- 
bridge. She now has the chair of English in the Mary Connor 
College, Paris, Texas. 

Mrs. Craig was elected to represent Dallas at the Woman's 
Congress at the World's Exposition, Chicago, and read a 
paper on "The Evolution of American Literature." She has 
also written for the Arena and other magazines. She is 
literary director of two clubs in Dallas, and two in Paris, 
Texas, and in this field has achieved great success. Her 
presence is an inspiration. She has dignity and elegance of 
manner. Mrs, Craig was married in 1867, and has been a 
widow for a number of years. She has one daughter, Mrs. 
Ferris, who is a gifted musician, and one son, who is a phar- 
macist in Dallas. 

Mrs. a. C. Harrison. — Mrs. Harrison bore the pretty 
maiden name of Kate Montgomery, and is a descendant of 
the Montgomery mentioned by MacAuley, who came to 
Maryland with Lord Baltimore. She was born in Westmore- 
land County, Virginia, notable as the birthplace of Washing- 
ton, Madison, Monroe, and Lee. Reared among hterary 
traditions she received such thorough educational advan- 
tages at Staunton, Virginia, as became the basis for the 
serious study to which she has devoted herself. A close 
reader of the best books and current literature, she keeps in 
touch with the most advanced thought of the day. Such 
associations enriched her vocabulary, and, unlike many 
writers, she is an easy and brilliant conversationalist. Mrs. 
Harrison has written numerous poems and papers — the 
latter give special evidence of talent and superior culture. 
The Frank Leslie Publishing Company has accepted some 
of this gifted lady's work. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 158 

It is pleasing to note that an "Essay on Hamlet," by 
Mrs. Harrison, was recently read before the Boston Home 
Culture Club. The implied compliment is the more gratifying 
from the fact that it was the only essay read from corre- 
spondents, and when a Texas essay is read to a Boston 
culture club, it becomes a significant acknowledgement of 
merit. The Lone Star State and Sherman, which has been 
Mrs. Harrison's home for a number of years, are to be con- 
gratulated upon this achievement. Mrs. Harrison is an 
Episcopalian and has been prominently identified with church 
as well as club work. 

Mrs. Anna Dial Hearne. — Captain Garling-ton Coker 
Dial came from South Carolina to Texas in the early forties, 
and fought the Indians and Mexicans with his own company 
of twenty-five picked men. His daughter, Mrs. Anna Dial 
Hearne, is a native of Texas and has identified herself with 
the intellectual and social life and development of the State. 
She is at present the executive officer of the Pathfinders 
Club. This organization is the nucleus of the literary life of 
Austin, and is composed of students linguist women noted 
in the field of letters. It is justly considered one of the most 
useful organizations for women in the State, and Mrs. Hearne 
as its chief promoter has earned the position which she holds 
as its president, a position she adorns by her rare, social 
tact, and her talents as an accomplished artist, literary con- 
noisseur and graceful conversationalist. Her pictures have 
taken first prizes at numerous Texas State fairs, at the 
New Orleans Exposition, and the gold medal of the Van- 
dyke Club's exhibition in San Antonio was accorded her 
also. 

Mrs. Hearne is of noble and distinguished English ances- 
try on the paternal, and of French Huguenot blood on her 
mother's side of the house. She is allied by her English blood 
with the Dials, or Doyles, who inter-married with the Hast- 
ings through Lady Isabel May, a daughter of the Eighth 
Earl of Huntingdon. Also through the Dials, or Doyles, 
with the Abercrombies of Clachmarmonshire, Scotland, the 



154 Prominent Women of Texas. 

home center of the Abercrombies, to the present day. Her 
immediate ancestors in this country were refugees along with 
the Irish, Scotch, and English Jacobites, who supported the 
cause of ''Prince Charlie" — Charles Edward Stewart, gen- 
erally called the Pretender, — and who, after their defeat at 
Cullodin, sought refuge in America from the persecutions of 
the House of Hanover. 



CHAPTER XXy. 

DRAMATIC. 

MRS. JULIETTE DOWNS BLUE — MRS. W. H. CRISP— MRS. CRESTON 
CLARKE — MISS MARIE WAINWRIGHT. 



Mrs. Juliette Downs Blue. — Mrs. Blue is a native of 
Mobile, Alabama, and has lived in New Orleans, in Louis- 
ville, and in Texas. Her father is P. T. Downs, superintend- 
ent of transportation of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe 
Eailroad Company, and her mother is distinguished for her 
talents, her courtly manners and her handsome person. Mrs. 
Blue was educated at Villa Maria, Montreal, Canada, and 
graduated with the highest honors of her class. In 1893, at 
the city of Chicago, she stood for the first time before the 
footlights in a minor character of "Americans Abroad." She 
was well received and encouraged in the choice of her voca- 
tion. Her subsequent appearances rapidly developed the 
latent genius that had inspired her choice and advanced her 
with phenomenal progress on the roll of Thespian honor. In 
two years she had run through the repertoire of the choicest 
companies, and had pla3'ed with brilliant success in leading 
roles of "Bichard III," and "The Merchant of Venice." At 
the end of this time, without premonition to her manager or 
the public, she entered into matrimonial engagements that 
brought to sudden halt the course on which she had entered 
w'ith such alluring promise. She w'as married in March, 
1895, to Dr. Rupert Blue, of the United States Marine Hos- 




MRS. JULIETTE DOWNS BLUE. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 155 

pital Service, at San Francisco, where she has established her 
home, for which, as she expresses it, she has "relinquished all 
ambition in the theatrical world for the sweeter and more 
substantial joys of domestic life." 

During- her brief but bright career, Mrs. Blue so impressed 
the public with a sense of her devotion to the drama, and 
-SO successfully interpreted the highest ideal of histrionic art, 
that the announcement of her withdrawal from the stage 
produced, not only regret, but the profouudest surprise 
among those who had enjoj^ed her renditions and witnessed 
her rapid promotion in the line of her profession. The regret 
is not surprising when it is recalled that to her genius she 
united a fascinating grace and a marvelous perfection of 
personal beauty. These qualities now adorn the social 
sphere in which she moves; their power is unspeakable; 
through them the purest enjoyments of life may be attained, 
its highest purpose achieved. 

Mrs. W. H. Crisp. — Beneath the shadow of an old elm 
in one of the cemeteries of Waco is seen the grave of 
Mrs. W. H. Crisp, a slab of marble at the head and a block of 
the same at the foot, the former containing dates of birth 
and death and both inscribed "Eliza." 

Mrs. Crisp was the mother of the distinguished congress- 
man from Georgia, late Speaker of the United States House 
of Representatives. She and her husband and her children, 
forming a popular dramatic combination, came to Texas in 
1870 and played in many places and with uniform success, 
until her death, which occurred in 1873. In her last illness 
she requested that her body be buried in the spot where it 
now lies. 

Mrs. Crisp was a woman of high character, fine talents, 
social virtues, genial manners ; these qualities created warm 
friends, always from the best society in which she lived. By 
these her memory is kept green and on each recurring Mem- 
orial Day her last resting place is strewn with flowers and 
decorated with mementoes of imperishable friendship and of 
loves that survive the tomb. 



156 Prominent Women of Texas. 

Mrs. Creston Clarke, known in the dramatic world 
as Mrs. Adelaide Prince, is an ex-Gal vestonian, and is fondly 
remembered by those who recall the triumphs of the old 
Histrionics of which she was the star. Mrs. Prince was the 
daughter of Solomon Rubenstein, of London, England. She 
came to Galveston when quite young ; and it was in this city 
that she received her early education. She made her profes- 
sional debut in Portland, Maine, appearing in "A Possible 
Case," under the management of J. M. Hill. She remained 
with Mr. Hill's company for a season, and then joined Mr. 
Daly's forces, beginning in the part of Aga the in " The Great 
Unknown." Later she played Olivia, to Mr. Clarke's Orsini 
in "Twelfth Night." 

The "Chib" appropriately suggests that some theatrical 
manager engage her as a star, and adds that she is pos- 
sessed of remarkable talent as well as being endowed with 
youth, beauty, and grace. 

Miss Marie Wainwright was the attraction at the 
opening of the Grand Opera House in Galveston. She is a 
daughter of Captain J. M. Wainwright, who commanded the 
United States sloop of war, "Harriet Lane," one of the ships 
engaged in the battle of Galveston in 1863, and who lost his 
life when the boarding Confederate troops of the steamer 
" Bayou City" captured his ship. 



CHAPTER XXVL 

Adelaide McCord. — In the unclouded days of her inno- 
cent and lovely girlhood Adelaide McCord was described by 
one who knew her well, as the most beautiful, accomplished 
and fascinating woman in the wide world. 

Near the close of her brief and brilliant, though sorrow- 
clouded career — she died when she was only thirty-three years 
of age — she became the morganatic wife of the King of 
Wurtemburg, one of the lesser crowned heads of the German 
Empire ; but her sway over the minds of men of letters and 



Prominent Women of Texas. 157 

art, and over the hearts ofthemultitudehad already crowned 
her, in all the great capitals of the world, the queen of beauty, 
love, wit, poesy and dramatic art. 

She was born in the old Spanish pueblo of Nacogdoches in 
Texas, where she was reared among school companions, boys 
and girls, her peers in social standing, and whose names have 
become distinguished in that world in which Talleyrand said 
there were but five hundred people — people who ranked above 
Col. Ward McAllister's "four hundred." 

From what sources was drawn the purple tide of life that 
flowed through the veins of Adelaide McCordwedonotknow; 
but that her father was of Scotch extraction on one side, at 
least, is evident from the name. That there was a chain of 
Hebrews-Spanish blood in her, may as likely be surmised 
from the fragmentary traditions we have of her short life. 

For years she lield at her feet, metaphorically, and in 
some instances actually, in resistless enchantment, the most 
noted men of two continents, and was the favorite toast in 
bazar, club and palace in all the great cosmopolitan cities of 
the world. 

No woman, probably ever faced a camera so often. Two 
hundred and fifty likenesses of her were in existence a few 
years ago. The wealthy owner of a palatial hotel in New 
York, and two theaters besides, being the possessor of the 
collection. Its weight in gold, costly frames and all, w^ould 
probably not tempt the collector to part with it, for he 
doubtless knows its historic and artistic value. It is said 
that he considers two of those pictures as priceless as 
the books of the Sibyls. They would bring any sum de- 
manded from either of two of the most distinguished men of 
letters in Europe, Algernon Charles Swinburne and the 
younger Dumas. 

Asa literary woman Adelaide McCord was even more appre- 
ciated on the other side of the Atlantic than in America. 
Her poems were published in both the United States and 
Europe in half a dozen different languages. Charles Dickens, 
who was a frequent guest at her dejeuners a-hi-fourchette, 
edited those poems. Her talents as an entertainer w^ere as 



158 Prominent Women of Texas. 

marked as her means were unlimited in making her break- 
fasts, dinners and little suppers the most exquisite imag- 
inable. Around her festive board were often grouped 
D'lsraeli, afterward the Earl of Beaconsfield, then a member 
of the British Parliament, and the most fashionable novelist 
of that period ; Charles Reade, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lj^tton, 
Jenny Lind, George Sand, the Earl of Derby, the dukes of 
Wellington, Edinburgh and Hamilton, the Prince of Wales, 
Theirs, Gambetti, Carlyle, Fechter, Dion Boucicault, Swin- 
burne, Theophile Gautier, Flaubert, the elder Dumas, and a 
host of others, the literary, social and political peers of 
those mentioned, as well as many of the lesser lights of the 
world of letters and art. All these were happy to be her 
guests, held willing captives by her wit, beauty and charming 
personality. 

As an actress, her receipts for one week, at the Gaieties in 
Paris, reached the sum of three hundred and fifty thousand 
francs — seventy thousand dollars. There she played to 
crowded houses one hundred nights. Royalty, represented 
at that period of her life by the third Napoleon and the 
Princes Jerome and Lucien Bonaparte, applauded her per- 
formances. The jealousy of the beautiful Empress Eugenie 
was the subject of remark, jest and witty comment in all the 
fashionable clubs, rendezvous and reunions of Paris. 

By the irony of fate, Adelaide McCord,the beautiful Texan, 
is only known to the world as Adah Isaacs Menken. Menken 
was the name of the musician who came across the disk of 
her planet when she was twenty-four years of age, and per- 
suaded her to become his most unhappy wife. From that 
ill-starred union she was released in the divorce courts, and 
after two other equally unhappy legal alliances, was freed, to 
become, a short time before her death, the morganatic wife 
of the King of Wurtemburg. 

In one, or perhaps several, of the encyclopaedias of this 
century, she is only briefly mentioned as Adah Isaacs Men- 
ken, and no record is found of her well-known marriage to 
the King of Wurtemburg. But at the time of her death in 
Paris, she was know^n as the Queen of AVurtemburg. The 



Prominent Women of Texas. 159 

same authority claims that her birthplace was New Orleans — 
a very natural mistake to the writer not trained to accuracy 
in the investigation of facts, for it was in that city that she 
and her sister made their first appearance on the boards as 
dancers in " Fazio." At one period of her early womanhood 
she taught in a seminary. It is likely that one possessed of 
such wondrous versatility, did this well. But the stage drew 
her to a more brilliant rostrum. She appeared in New York 
in 1859 ; in Paris in 1860. 

She is described by the journals of those days as a beauty 
of the medium brunette t^^pe, with fair and delicately tinted 
complexion, rich red lips, pearly teeth, large, lustrous brown 
eyes, black eyebrows and lashes, dark hair that fell in nat- 
ural waves around a face of classic mould, radiant with 
youthful happiness and innocence, united with an inteUigence 
which was prophetic of the possibilities and probabilities of 
her future. 

General Alford and Col. Thomas Ochiltree were among her 
school companions in Texas, and the former supplies the larg- 
est part of the data used in the preparation of this sketch. 
He is fond of relating, in the manner of a thoroughbred 
gentleman, all that he knows of the story of his lovely play- 
mate, who, in " after years, had kings, princes, poets, and 
warriors at her feet" — who, as a playmate of his own age, 
joined in the pastimes of the boys and girls about the old log 
hut they called a schoolhouse, and that, years afterwards, he 
met her in Paris, where she was the morganatic wife of the 
King of Wurtemburg ; and of how, in London, she was the 
reigning sensation — her carriage followed by admiring 
throngs, and her crest, "a horse's head, surmounted by four 
aces," the theme of constant discussion. "I met her," said 
the General, "in one of my visits to Paris. Tom Ochiltree 
and I were sitting together in the court of the Grand Hotel. 
She was then the Queen of Wurtemburg, and at the zenith of 
her career. The King was with her when she drove in, but 
soon excused himself, begging her to continue her drive." 

"A party of Frenchmen were admiring her and making ex- 
travagant wishes about having her acquaintance. 



160 Prominent Women of Texas. 

"Tom and I exchanged smiles. He arose and slowly 
walked toward her carriage." 

" Hello, Tom ! " she cried, extending her hand, " get in and 
take a drive." 

"Great was the surprise expressed by the Frenchmen, 
but greater still when the American with the ease of old ac- 
quaintanceship, stepped into the gorgeous vehicle, and was 
wheeled away to the Boulevard. The next day we both 
called on her and enjoyed a few hours in delightful remi- 
niscences of our childish pleasures in old Nacogdoches." 

None of her name or kindred are now living in Texas, but 
dear is her memory to those who knew her as the generous, 
Avarm-hearted, lovely little companion of their childhood. 

She endeared herself to the Southern heart by her warm 
espousal of the Confederate cause. Her rooms in Baltimore, 
where she was during the early days of the struggle, were 
profusely decorated with Confederate flags and other tokens 
of her intense patriotism and devotion to her own native 
Southland in the memorable days of the struggle against 
the national authority. Her defiance became so conspicu- 
ous, that on one occasion she was placed under arrest to 
quell her Southern ardor. Vain effort ! 

It was not long after this that she became the reigning 
toast in Paris and London. 

Peaceful was the close of her erratic, tempest-tossed life. 
In 1868 she calmly met the dread King of Kings in Paris, 
She donned her own white bridal robes to meet her last 
ghostly bridegroom, and, thus attired and veiled, was borne 
to beautiful, peaceful Pere la Chaise. Here she reposed for three 
years, when her remains were claimed by the people of her 
adopted faith, and now they lie at rest in the Hebrew ceme- 
tery of Mont Parnesse. "Thou Knowest," was the legend 
inscribed upon her monument in Pere la Chaise; now, on the 
granite shaft in Mont Parnesse is carved "Infelix." "Thou 
Knowest" was the more fitting inscription. 

In regard to those painful passages in her life, which have, 
no doubt, been exaggerated and printed to feed a morbid 
taste for prurient literature, it is best to let them die the 



Prominent Women of Texas. 161 

natural death which is sure to follow all such criticisms, 
whether they attack the morganatic queen of a king or the 
widowed Queen and Empress of the most powerful Kingdom 
and Empire on the globe. 

None but an exalted and over-scrupulous nature could 
have dictated the beautiful and touching poem selected from 
her volume of verse, and containing the too open confession 
of a soul steeped in sorrow, her " Lament for a Life." 

LAMENT FOR A LIFE. 

Where is the promise of my years, 

Once written on my brow? 
Ere sorrows, agonies and fears 
Brouglit with them all that speaks in tears, 
Ere I had sunk beneath my peers— 

Where sleeps that promise now? 

Naught lingers to redeem those hours, 

Still, still to memory sweet, 
The flowers that bloomed in sunny bowers 
Are withered all; and evil towers 
Supreme above the sister powers 

Of sorrow and deceit. 

I look along the columned years 

And see life's riven fane, 
Just where it fell, amid the jeers 
Of scornful lips, whose mocking sneers 
Forever hiss within mine ears. 

To break the sleep of pain. 

I can but own my life is vain, 

A desert void of peace; 
I missed the goal I sought to gain, 
I missed the measure of the strain 
That lulls Fame's fever in the brain, 

And bids earth's tumult cease. 

Myself! Alas for theme so poor, 

A theme but rich in fear! 
I stand a wreck on Error's shore, 
A spectre not within the door, 
A houseless shadow evermore 
An exile lingering here. 
W. of T.— U 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

"WIVES OF PROMINENT MEN. 

MES. JAMES S. HOGG — MRS. RICHARD COKE — MRS. JOHN 

H. REAGAN — MRS. GEORGE CLARK — 

MRS. WM. HENRY GRAIN. 



Mrs. James S. Hogg. — The late wife of ex-Governor 
James S. Hogrg was the daughter of J. A. Stinson and Ann 
West, of Georgia, in which State she was born ; with her par- 
ents she moved to Texas in 1860, and was educated 
principally under the tuition of Prof. M. H. Looney, at 
the town of Gilmer. She w^as married in April, 1874, 
and thereafter lived successively at Quitman, Mineola 
and Tyler, in each of which places her husband opened 
a law office, establishing himself finally in the latter town, 
which was their home when he was elected Attorney- 
General of Texas in 1886. He entered upon the duties of 
this office in January, of the following year, and continued in 
it two successive terms when he was elected Governor of 
the State. In the latter position he also served two terms, 
retiring from office in January, 1895. Itmaybe mentioned, in 
this connection, that to Governor Hogg belongs the peculiar 
distinction of being the first and only native Texan to fill 
either the office of Governor or Attorney-General. During his 
continuous public service of eight years his residence was at 
Austin, the capital of the State, where Mrs. Hogg, by her 
gentleness and Christian virtues, formed many warm attach- 
ments and created the wealth of resources that served to 
enrich her social life. On resuming the duties of a private 
citizen, her husband chose Austin as their future home, and 
there, in a peaceful atmosphere of her own creation, she 
dwelt among ft-iends. Her health, always feeble, soon gave 
signs of alarming failure, and she was taken to Pueblo, Colo- 
rado, in the hope of benefit from its salubrious climate. She, 
(162) 




MRS. JAMES S. HOGG. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 168 

however, derived no advantage from the change, but rapidly 
declined, and died there on the 21st of September, 1895. The 
body was carried to Austin, where, at the request of the incum- 
bent Executive, solemn obsequies were held at the guberna- 
torial mansion, and it was thence conveyed, amid universal 
sorrow, to its last resting place in the city's cemetery. 

Mrs. Hogg left four children ; Willie, Ima, Mike and Tom. 
Her father and mother and two brothers also survive her. 

Mrs. Hogg was quiet in her manners, retiring in her habits, 
unobtrusive in social intercourse, unostentatious in her 
hospitality, and instinctively humane in dispensing the sweet 
charities of life. As long as true worth and good works are 
valued among men, will lives like hers be cherished as helpful 
memories in the direction of human conduct. 

Mrs. Richard Coke. — In every sphere of life, as gover- 
nor, judge, United States senator or citizen, Senator Coke has 
evinced his superior ability, and is prominent among the emi- 
nent men of Texas. He has climbed the rugged hill of politi- 
cal preferment : dignified the positions he has held, and it is 
easy to trace his voluntary retirement from public life to the 
sources of that ennobling affection which has contributed to 
the domestic harmony of his home in Waco. During recent 
years Mrs. Coke's health has visibly failed. To be near her, 
and by gentle and unremitting watchfulness to add to her 
content, is to gratify his ambition, and yield to her the hap- 
piness that the formal routine of social life could not offer. 

The Mistress of Fort Houston. — Mrs. John H. Rea- 
gan, nee Miss Mollie Ford Taylor, is a conspicuous figure 
among the notable and prominent women of Texas. 

" My marriage to Mr. Reagan was the first thing that ever 
happened to me," was the laughing remark of Mrs. Reagan. 
That it was a happy happening may w^ell be inferred from 
the further statement of both parties that "it was a verita- 
ble love match." 

It was in 1875 that Mrs. Reagan accompanied her hus- 
band to the federal capital, where he went to take his seat 



164 Prominent Women of Texas. 

for his third term in the United States House of Representa- 
tives. 

Her social successes, almost triumphs, began with her first 
introduction into the most exclusive, distinguished, and in- 
tellectual circles of the capital. Her receptions were noted 
for their brilliancy, while their lovely leader commanded the 
highest respect and esteem as the secretary of her distin- 
guished husband, a post she really held many years before 
she received the government appointment as such. She has 
always taken a thorough and intelligent interest in her hus- 
band's work and career. Mrs. Reagan's home in Texas, Fort 
Houston, near Palestine, is noted far and wide for its stately 
old-style beauty, and the graceful hospitalities dispensed by 
its accomplished mistress. 

Mrs. George Clark, of Waco, was reared in an atmos- 
phere of cultivation. Her father. Major Clement Read 
Johns, enjoyed the confidence and esteem of people in every 
part of the State. His military career began in 1836, and in 
1840 he was elected and served as a member of the Fifth 
Congress of the Republic of Texas. He will be remembered 
as the author of the famous bill passed at that session of 
Congress to quiet titles to lands of the Republic. Judge 
Clark is one of the most prominent jurists and politicians in 
the State, and surrounded by the environments that pros- 
perous fortune confers, his wife maintains the position she 
is called to occupy with signal grace. 

Mrs. William Henry Grain can be justly termed a 
daughter of Texas. Her father, Capt. Isaac N. Mitchell, 
was a successful planter, and often a soldier from 1838 to his 
death, in 1853. Her mother, Mrs. Mary A. Mitchell, was the 
daughter of Maj. James Kerr, a gentleman thoroughly 
identified with southwestern Texas from his arrival in Febru- 
ary, 1825, to his death in December, 1850, he having been 
the first settler at Gonzales, and long surveyor of both the 
colonies of De Witt and DeLeon. Her mother, Mrs. Angehne 
Kerr, died in a camp on the San Bernard shortly after landing 



Prominent Women of Texas. 165 

at the mouth of the Brazos, soon followed by her two little 
sons, and was buried in the wilderness by a few men with only 
two ladies present, one of whom, Mrs. Mary E. Bell, a devoted 
Christian, read the burial service at the grave. Mrs. 
Kerr left an only child, Mary, to reach womanhood, and 
become the mother of Mrs. Grain. Major Kerr was married a 
second time, in 1833, to Miss Sarah G. Fulton, of Victoria, 
formerly of New York. Together they watched over Mary 
from early girlhood until her marriage. After the Mexican 
invasion, in 1836, her education was continued at St. Mary's 
Seminary, first at "The Barrens," and then at Cape Girar- 
deau, Missouri. Keturning home, in 1839, she long ranked as 
one of the most accomplished and amiable young ladies in 
that portion of Texas. In July, 1843, she married Cap- 
tain Mitchell. Some years after his death she married Mr. 
Sheldon, and died at Halletsville in 18—. Her daughter, 
Angeline Mitchell, the subject of this sketch, was born in 
Laraca County, thoroughly educated in the convents at 
Galveston and New Orleans, becoming an accomplished 
young woman, enjoying the love of a large circle of kindred, 
including several brothers and sisters, and a large circle of 
friends, until her marriage to William Henry Crain, a brilliant 
young lawyer, who was for about ten years, a widely 
known member of Congress from southwest Texas, resid- 
ing in Cuero, De Witt County. Mrs. Crain passed several 
winters with her husband in Washington, but for some years 
has preferred to remain at home, watching over the training 
and welfare of her children. She has ever been patriotic, lov- 
ing Texas with a devotion worthy of a true daughter, proving 
that she is a worthy descendant of her grand-parents, Major 
and Mrs. Kerr, both of whom descended from approved Revo- 
lutionary stock. Major Kerr, through both his father and 
mother (James Kerr, Sr., and his wife Patience Wells), who 
were the children of conspicuous Revolutionary soldiers from 
Maryland in the war of 1776, while Mrs. Kerr was a scion of 
the noted Caldwell family of Kentucky, her father, Gen. James 
Caldwell, having been speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives in both Kentucky and the Territory of Missouri. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

MRS. LUCY HOLCOMB PICKENS — MRS. MARY MERCER ORD. 



Mrs. Lucy Holcomb Pickens. — A very graceful wri- 
ter of Texas reminiscences, in recalling the incidents of 
pioneer life in the young Republic, speaks of his com- 
panions in the primitive schoolhouse of that day, among 
whom he refers, by name, to four charming pupils of the 
little girl class as "a quartette of the most' noted beau- 
ties and loveliest women Texas has ever produced." He 
also describes Adelaide McCord, "one of the most fam- 
ous women of modern times, known to fame as Adah 
Isaacs Menken," whose life, it may be mentioned, we have 
presented in this, our gallery of Prominent Women. " But," 
continues the writer of the reminiscences, after passing 
this bright array in review, " the loveliest, purest and best of 
all this brilliant coterie of early schoolmates, was the stately 
and matchless beauty, Lucy Holcomb, who stands without 
a peer in magnificent Texas w-omanhood." This incompara- 
ble woman, this woman " without a peer," was destined to a 
career as splendid in the country's history as had been her 
brief reign among her rustic companions in the wilds of pri- 
meval Texas. In 1856 she married Colonel Pickens, member 
of Congress from South Carolina, and was at once crowned 
queen of Edgewoocl, her husband's ancestral home in Edge- 
field County of that State. In the year following her mar- 
riage, her husband was appointed by President Buchanan, 
minister to represent the United States government near the 
imperial court of St. Petersburg. She there became a favor- 
ite, and was recognized as a particular star in the diplomatic 
constellation of the bright capital. Her only child was born 
in the midst of the resplendent trappings of royalty, for the 
Empress had provided apartments for the interesting event 
(166) 



Prominent Women of Texas. 167 

in the imperial palace of Romanoff. Still further to testify 
her affection, the Empress assumed the duties of the baby 
girl's god-mother and gave her the name of "Douschka," 
which, interpreted from the Russ, signifies " a little darling." 
Both the powerful sponsor and her sovereign lord, the Czar, 
though confessing allegiance to no other power, never fal- 
tered in the lo3^alty of their love for Douschka, the petted 
scion of American democracy. On leaving the Russian capi- 
tal for her home two years later, the Emperor conferred 
upon her a medallion, bearing his own effigy, and in the 
years that followed her departure the imperial family cele- 
brated each birthday anniversary with loving greetings and 
tokens of costly value. 

In 1860 Colonel Pickens resigned his mission, having been 
elected Governor of South Carolina. That year and that 
State are both conspicuously memorable in the history of 
the country. Then and there were initiated the measures 
that culminated in the greatest civil revolution of modern 
times. On entering his new service Governor Pickens' official 
home was Columbia, the State's capital, and there, in the ex- 
ecutive mansion, Mrs. Pickens discharged with inimitable 
grace and dignity the social functions belonging to her hus- 
band's high office. Her life was devoted to the Southern 
cause, and her zeal gave her lasting prominence among the 
patriotic women of the South. She was honored equally by 
soldiers and civilians, and, in compliment to her fervor, her 
picture was engraved upon the currency of the Confederate 
States. 

Bj invitation of General Beauregard, Governor Pickens 
went from the capital to Charleston to witness the first act 
of the great war. He took his family with him. On the 12th 
of April, 1861, at the hour of 4:30 in the morning— a day and 
hour never to be forgotten in the military history of Amer- 
ica—the General took little Douschka in his arms, and placed 
in her tiny hand the lighted match that fired the first gun 
of the Confederate war. The little maiden gave the impulse 
that, for four years, was felt on every sea and in every land 
of the earth. The sequel is matter of history. Fort Sumter, 



168 Prominent Women of Texas. 

on which Douschka's gun was trained, after short resistance, 
surrendered to the Confederates who held it to the end of the 
contest, then abandoned it " a pile of ruins." When that end 
came little Douschka's Columbian home was also laid in 
ruins, and all then left of South Carolina's capital was the 
charred skeleton of a city standing in the midst of desolation 
to mark the fierce vengeance of the Attila of the North. 
That gloomy end of the fruitless struggle was also witness of 
the first heart sorrow of Douschka's life— the death of her 
father. 

After the death of the Governor, Mrs. Pickens continued to 
live at Edgewood where, after some years, her daughter 
Douschka was married to Doctor Dugas, of Augusta, Geor- 
gia. On this occasion the bride received from the Czar of 
Russia a silver tea service, in token of the continued affection 
of the imperial family. Her married life was comparatively 
brief; she died in 1893 while on a visit to her mother at the 
old homestead, and left for the solace of their grandmother 
two interesting little children. The funeral was attended by 
people of every class ; her pall-bearers were former slaves of 
her father, and all the other surviving slaves were present as 
mourners. To these colored friends the grief-stricken mother, 
standing by the body of her beloved dead, addressed a touch- 
ing acknowledgment of past faithfulness and devotion, and 
invoked their continuance to herself and the little ones of 
their young mistress. Her splendid tribute on this sorrow- 
ful occasion reveals alike the fidelity of the servants and the 
confidence of the mistress — they, by their acts, reflecting her 
gentleness and generosity, she, by hers, their gratitude and 
loyalty. 

Mrs. Pickens lives in resigned contentment at the once 
happy Edgewood where, under the burden of her sorrows, she 
is distinguished for the same affable grace that made her be- 
loved by the cheerful throng of the great, or at the gay cere- 
monial of a brilliant court. 

Mrs. Mary Mercer Ord, the widow of Gen. E. O. C. Ord, 
of the United States army, had resided many years in San 



Prominent Women of Texas. 169 

Antonio previous to her recent death in that city, and had 
so fully identified herself with the social life of the State as 
to entitle her to a place among; the prominent women of 
Texas. She was the daughter of Judge Robert A. Thompson, 
who moved to California in 1848, and w^as afterwards chief 
justice of his adopted State. On the boat that bore Judge 
Thompson and his daughter to California w^ere Ulysses S. 
Grant, W. Tecumseh Sherman and Phil. Sheridan, all 
lieutenants in the United States army at that time. 

It will be remembered that Mrs. Ord was a Southerner by 
birth, having three brothers who fought in the Confederate 
army, and she belonged on the maternal side of her house to 
the old Slaughter family of Virginia, who were active Con- 
federates during the strife. She was married to General Ord 
in 1854, and was hence on the Federal side of the line during 
the war. She was with her husband much of the time while 
he w^as in active service, and witnessed several battles. She 
was the first lady who entered Richmond after its fall. The 
flames consuming the magazines and storehouses of the Con- 
federates were still burning as she rode into the city beside 
her husband, who was at the head of his command. 

In 1875 General Ord was assigned to the command of the 
department of the United States army, the headquarters of 
which were at San Antonio. His wife accompanied him, and 
has lived in that city much of the time until her death, 
although her husband left her a wddow in 188^. Her three 
Confederate-soldier brothers w^ho survive her, are: Mr. Frank 
Thompson, formerly city assayer of San Francisco ; Reginald 
Thompson, member of Congress from Louisville, Kentucky; 
and another, who was late minister of the United States to 
Brazil. Her three sons are: Lieut. E. 0. C. Ord, of the 
Arkansas Military College; Lieut. Garsche Ord, of the 
United States army, stationed at Fort Sam Houston; 
and Mr. James Ord, of Monterey, Mexico. Her daughters 
are Mrs. Lucie Ord Mason, and Mrs. Frederick Ord Hillcourt. 
She had also a son-in-law, General Trevino, of Monterey. 

Mrs. Ord's home in San Antonio w'as an interesting resi- 
dence decorated with rare taste, bric-a-brac, curios, antiques, 



170 Prominent Women of Texas. 

and, what was of more value and interest to every visitor, 
sacred trophies of the war greeted the eye at every turn. 
Among many interesting relics the writer recalls a large silk 
flag, American of course, and of unusual historic interest, 
while in the back parlor of the Ord home hung Ben Butler's 
tattered and bullet-riddled '' Lone Star " ensign. It was the 
flag that floated over Butler's headquarters during his 
never-to-be-forgotten residence in New Orleans. As it hung 
in Mrs. Ord's parlor it was much dilapidated. A large piece 
was torn from the lower corner, and the flag had many sig- 
nificant holes, all over it, made by dangerous, deadly, minie 
rifle balls. General Ord succeeded Butler in New Orleans and 
that is the solution of how Mrs. Ord came in possession of 
the flag. 

The most famous and valuable of the relics which had 
been in Mrs. Ord's house was not there at the time of her 
death. It had passed from her possession into that of Mr. 
Gunther, a wealthy confectioner, of Chicago, who bought it 
for one thousand dollars. It was, or is, only a little table, a 
very ordinary piece of cabinet work of cheap material with a 
marble top, but on that table General Lee and General 
Grant signed the paper which surrendered the Southern army 
and virtually ended tlie war. 

Mrs. Ord parted with this souvenir with much regret. 
Mrs. Grant and Mr. Fred. Grant both wanted it. General 
Ord had prized it highly. He was present w^hen the surrender 
was signed at Appomattox Courthouse, and, knowing what 
its future value would be, set it aside. 

In one corner of the marble top of the table is a nick 
about one inch long and probably a quarter of an inch deep. 
This was made by the hilt of General Lee's sword striking 
the table Avhen he rose after signing the paper. When the 
marble chip fell on the floor General Sheridan picked it up 
and put it in his pocket. 

Mrs. Ord is also my authority for stating that the table 
which Mrs. General Custer has, and w^hich she thinks is the 
one upon which the articles of surrender were signed is not 
the one it is purported to be, but that it is of great historic 



Prominent Women of Texas. 171 

interest and value also, as it is the one upon which General 
Gibbon wrote the order which was afterward sig-ned by 
Grant, announcing Lee's surrender. General Custer was 
present at the time, and, after the other gentlemen had left 
the room seized the table and handed it out of the window, 
telling one of his men to take care of it for him. 

It would require a long chapter to enumerate and relate 
the stories of the war relics that were in the Ord house in 
San Antonio. In that home Mrs. Ord was the living expo- 
nent of them all, her every movement and gesture indicative 
of dignity and grace, her every word significant of the culture 
of the lady. Her face beamed with the kindness and benevo- 
lence of her heart. Her fine hair, touched with silver and ar- 
ranged high on her nobly poised head, added to her queenly 
appearance and stately bearing. Her conversation was rich 
in historic memories, while she commanded at all times the 
respect due a noble woman in the autumn of life. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE UNCROWNED QUEEN OF THE WEST. 



Mrs. Richard King. — The landed estates of the widow 
of Capt. Richard King consist of about 2,000 square miles in 
Southern Texas. Richard Harding Davis, in one of his in- 
teresting sketches, says truly: "It is difficult to imagine a 
solitary family occupying an area large enough to support, 
in the East, a State capital, with governor, legislature, 
numerous towns, and competing systems of railways." 

Imagine, if you can, a castle, removed from the Rhine, 
the classic and beautiful river which moves gently on and 
ever under the enchanting wand of romance. A castle but 
the enchanter's wand reaches not over the silver-gray waves, 
the close-cropped lands, the stunted growth, the rifled vine- 
yards, the square-cut villages of Germany, but the broad, 
wild, ocean-like, undulating, magnificent expanses of this im- 
mense State. Texas is larger than New England, and larger 



172 Prominent "Women of Texas. 

than many a principality over which crowned heads lift their 
scepters, and Mrs. King owns 1,250,000 acres within it and 
rules a little world of her own. Her employes are virtually 
controlled by her; she is to each one of them a generous 
friend, and they are pleased to execute such plans as she de- 
vises for the general good. Thus it is that one representative 
in the next Congress will be nominated and elected by a 
woman, without casting a vote herself or caring for the right 
of suffrage. Her palace at Corpus Christi is her home for 
several months of the year. Here may be found all the lux- 
uries of the East, every modern appliance for comfort, or for 
the gratification of aesthetic tastes in art, literature or do- 
mestic economy. Its substantial walls combine the solidity 
of the old world with the grace and freedom of the new. As 
handsomely and thoroughly equipped as any white marble 
mansion that lifts its costly, aristocratic front on 5th Ave- 
nue, New York, this surprise in architecture is set against the 
background of the golden-gated West. Corpus Christi is the 
terminus of a railway, and the continuous stream of wagons 
that once bore ice and every other luxury and necessity to 
the ranch is now replaced by a branch railroad of her ow^n. 
Long cattle trains leave Corpus Christi to carry Mrs. King's 
cattle to the East. Her home on the ranch stands, like a 
baronial castle, on an eminence, while around it are the well- 
tilled fields and gardens, the homes of her dependents, cluster- 
ing around the central chateau. She who reigns over that 
magnificent territory of 1,250,000 acres and all of its indus- 
tries, is a generous, wdse and good woman who has reached 
the meridian of life, a benefactress to all who find employ- 
ment Avithin her domain. 

By examining the records of the land-office at Washing- 
ton City, there will be found some startling and interesting 
facts relative to that immense country which extends from 
Southern Texas into that pathetically beautiful country of 
Mexico, where Maximilian was executed and poor Carlotta 
w^ent mad for love of him. On the map it seems to terminate 
at the Kio Grande, whose murmuring waters so soon hide 
away the red drop of human blood that tinges the stream 



Prominent Wosien of Texas. 173 

with melancholy. This vast region, larger than New Eng- 
land, with her five strong States, is owned by four families — 
the Kings, Kennedys, Collinses and Armstrongs. Their 
names show their nationalities. An old-fashioned, though 
picturesque stage route carries you over this section ft'om 
Brownsville to Alice in about forty hours. You may pass 
on unconscious of the beauty and romantic surroundings, 
but if you are poet or artist you will be alive to your oppor- 
tunities. The old-time stage carries mail for a large part of 
Mexico. 

This vast territory over which you have been asleep, or 
perchance grumbling, or happily wide-awake to its attrac- 
tions, belongs to the Mrs. King of whom this sketch is writ- 
ten. The cattle grazing upon these thousands and tens of 
thousand acres, are all her own. The ranch is called Santa 
Gertrudes and is the largest in the world. It is bounded by 
Corpus Christi Bay for a distance of forty miles, and the 
barbed wire fences on the land side, extend a distance of 
three hundred miles. You would indeed be unappreciative if 
you passed over so grand an expanse without involuntarily 
paying homage to the uncrowned possessor of this vast es- 
tate, who deserves the honor in her personal worth as well as 
property. 

Remember the power this position gives, and she has not 
abused it. From her front door to her front gate is thirteen 
miles. The Duke of Norfolk can ride from beautiful old 
Arundel Castle to London on his own lands. Mrs. King can 
pass over 2,000 square miles without trespassing upon an- 
other's premises. Among the herds that feed on the green 
pastures of the prairie lands are 200,000 cattle of improved 
and imported breeds. The current expenses of her ranch 
consume more than $100,000 per annum ; 300 cowboys are 
employed, 1,200 ponies being furnished them. She is the 
good Lady Bountiful to her people. 

When the first Presbyterian minister who ever crossed the 
Rio Grande, went into the wilderness, staff and Bible in hand, 
to preach the Gospel to the descendants of the Aztecs, to the 
Indian lord of the forest, to the untraced mixed races that 



174 Prominent Women of Texas. 

had gathered there, how little had he, save his faith and 
courage, and how remote from him was the dream that to a 
greater multitude his own little daughter was to come after 
him, in his own footsteps, a teacher, a guide, a benefactress, 
the veritable Queen of the Plains, where the turf was the has- 
sock whereon he knelt, and the blue dome his only temple for 
worship. It is most fitting that she, his daughter, should 
reign there ; that her children and grandchildren should in- 
herit her grand possessions. One of her daughters is the 
wife of Eobert J. Kleberg, her general manager, and though 
his position is one of great responsibihty, Mrs. King's is 
greater still. 

For every twenty miles of fencing one man is employed, to 
see that no break is made, and, of course, he must have his 
assistants. Besides, there are the shepherds, the cowboys, 
the maids, the hostlers, the gardeners, the farmers, the 
families that find employment and earn a good living. 

Power involves responsibility. Mrs. King is not to be en- 
vied save in the power of doing good. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MRS. J. C. WALKER — MRS. JOHN C. WEST — MRS. MARY C. 

BILLINGS. 



Mrs. Walker, wife of Hon. James C. Walker, is of Irish 
parentage. Bound by hereditary custom, she adheres to the 
tenets of the Catholic Church with which she has been promi- 
nently identified. During a residence of twenty-four years in 
Waco, she has helped to build three Catholic Churches. The 
first one w^as condemned and had to be taken dow^n; the 
second, a small one, soon became inadequate for the uses of 
an enlarged membership. The present cathedral, with its 
stained windows and handsome pictures, gives evidence of her 
enthusiasm and talent. 

She has show^n an intelligent s^^mpathy with every move- 
ment in the world of art and literature, and her home has 



Prominent Women of Texas. 175 

been the center of attraction for men and women distin- 
guished in those fields of effort. 

Her executive ability and her energies find expression in 
religious, philanthropic, literary and social channels. 

Mrs. John C. West. — The story of benevolence in 
Texas cannot be fully told nor the measure of its relief fully 
realized without embracing in the narrative arecord of the 
good works and unselfish devotion of Mrs. John C. West. 

She was born in South Carolina, and came to Texas in 
1858, first living in Austin, then, in the following year, 
moving to Waco, where she has since resided. Her grand- 
father, Kobert Stark, was among the earliest settlers of Co- 
lumbia, the capital of her native state, and the old home- 
stead is there still owned by the family, who revere it as the 
patriarchal seat of their house. This ancestor was a noted 
solicitor of South Carolina, and is distinguished in her judi- 
cial annals for the vigor and ability with which he enforced 
her criminal laws. 

Mrs. West is an active member of The Home, a pros- 
perous charitable institution of Waco, also President of the 
Ladies' Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A., and also closely 
identified with every organized work of benevolence instituted 
by her church. The duties she assumes are arduous and ex- 
acting, yet none are overlooked, neither does she relax in the 
domestic attentions that make her home the abiding place 
of cheerfulness and hospitality. Martha w-as "careful" and 
given to the service of the household, Mary sat at the Mas- 
ter's feet "and heard his word." Happy is she who unites 
in her daily life the duties of both the sisters of Bethany ! 

Mrs. Mary C. Billings, Evangelist. While nearly all 
women are religiously inclined, and very many are more 
or less close observers of church discipline and practice, 
but few are actively engaged in the duties that appertain 
to the clergy. Of this number is Mrs. Mary C. Billings, an 
ordained minister in the Universalist Church, doing mis- 
sionary work in Texas, and associated with her husband, 



176 Prominent Women of Texas. 

of the same congregation, who is superintendent of its 
missions in the State. Her labors are among a people who 
are easily accessible through the medium of a faith that 
appeals to their sense of human infirmity and to their reli- 
ance upon the saving grace of a divine compassion. This 
faith teaches that the sacrifice of the cross was a perfect, and 
not a conditional atonement, an expiation whereby the guilt 
of all men was extinguished through the obedience of the 
Great Sufferer. In this belief the Universalist, of course, re- 
jects the doctrine of eternal punishment, and embraces that 
of a perfect reconciliation after death between the Creator 
and his human children. In some non-essentials the Univer- 
salists differ among themselves, especially in regard to the 
future state ; some believe in a remedial punishment of lim- 
ited duration after death; others believe that all will be 
happy immediately after the dissolution of the body, but in 
different degrees ; and still others believe that this happiness 
will be equal and alike among all the multitude of the re- 
deemed. But, differ as they may upon points of less vital 
interest, they are united upon the fundamental doctrine of 
the final and perfect happiness of all mankind. In this belief, 
Mrs. Billings, like her co-religionists, imputes to human 
weakness every sin, and fills her heaven with all the human 
race. Her mission, therefore, binds her closer to the univer- 
sal brotherhood that is to live and love unbroken through 
the eternal eons of the future. It draws her nearer to her 
fellow-man on earth, and opens up channels of sympathy 
through which her godly lessons find access to his heart. 

Though Mrs. Billings has largely given her life to clerical 
work, she has displayed great activity in other fields of use- 
fulness. She has written two books, one a work of fiction, 
entitled " Emma Clermert," and the other a holiday publica- 
tion, known as "The Wonderful Christmas Tree." Both 
were well received and were flatteringly commended by the 
press. While abroad, some years since, she wrote "Thither- 
side Sketches," which were serially published in the Ladies' 
Repository, a Boston monthly, running through two years 
of that publication. Mrs. Bilhngs has also been, and still is, 



Prominent Women of Texas. 177 

a prolific writer for northern journals and periodicals. These 
productions are both in prose and verse, and from each have 
been culled specimens of choice composition to be compiled 
in book form for literary readers. Among these compila- 
tions may be mentioned " Poets and Poetry of Printerdom," 
" Women in Sacred Song," and "Our Women Workers." Mrs. 
Billings is a member of The Texas Woman's Press Associa- 
tion, and of The Woman's State Council, in both of which 
bodies she takes an active and intelligent interest. 

Mrs. Billings' wedded life has been twice overshadowed by 
a wife's greatest sorrow. In her present nuptials she is 
united to a husband who is a companion in its truest sense — 
holding the same faith, working in the same vineyard, hoping 
for the same reward. Mrs. Billings has no children. Epam- 
inondas, too, was childless. It is related of him that hear- 
ing some one regret that he had no children to inherit his 
honors, he replied that his deeds were his children and they 
would survive him. Like the Theban patriot, Mrs. Billings 
may well feel that her good works are her children and that 
they will live after her. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN. 

MES. W. L. PRATHER — MRS. THOMAS J. WILLIAMS — MRS. 

L. W. GOODRICH — MRS. H. C. STONE — 

MRS. EVA L. HARDEN. 



Mrs. W. L. Prather'S dignity, graceful ease and fin- 
ished culture are appreciated in the best circles. A Virginian 
by birth, she belongs to one of the oldest families in that 
State. Her father. Dr. Kirkpatrick, a distinguished minister 
of the Presb^'terian Church, w^as for many years the professor 
of moral philosophy at Washington and Lee University. 
His daughter. Miss Fanny, was married in 1875 to Col. Wm. 
L. Prather, a prominent member of the Texas bar, a man 
whose broad humanity and learning fit him for a splendid 

p. W. of T.— 12 



178 Pkominent Women of Texas. 

public career. The Prather home, one of the most elegant 
and desirable in Waco, is the center of a polished coterie, 
where are welcome not only the statesman and scholar, the 
gifted and the distinguished, but the less fortunate, who 
stand in need of sympathy and encouragement. The recep- 
tion extended her guest by Mrs. Prather is that of a kind 
hostess and an accomplished gentlewoman. 

Mrs. Thomas J. Williams, nee Miss Mary Tyler Curtis, 
daughter of the celebrated Doctor Curtis, and niece of 
Lord Curtis, of Scotland, was directly related to three 
presidents; Monroe, Harrison and Tyler. Her mother, 
Christian Tyler Williams, was the youngest daughter of 
Governor Tyler, of Virginia, and the sister of President Tyler. 
The family have two interesting souvenirs, a pen and a table 
used by President Tyler. The latter was made from Texas 
minerals and native woods, and presented to President Tyler 
by this State, after he had annexed Texas to the Union. 

Mrs. Williams was originall}'^ from Richmond, Virginia, 
and came to Texas as the bride of Lieut. Thomas J. Wil- 
liams, a graduate of West Point, who resigned his position in 
the United States army to enlist with the Confederate cause. 
He was appointed by President Jefferson Davis Commis- 
sary General for the Confederate States of America. 
Afterward he was made Indian Commissioner of Mexico, 
going thence to the Indian reservation in the Indian Terri- 
tory. He went to Washington, and, through speeches and 
personal influence, was instrumental in obtaining the pas- 
sage of a bill in Congress that made an appropriation for the 
land on which is located Fort Sam Houston Post, and for 
the building of the garrison quarters at San Antonio. He 
was devoted to Texas and army life, and, during the various 
changes of post. Colonel and Mrs. Wilhams have always con- 
sidered San Antonio as home. There Mrs. Williams now 
resides, having been a widow for eight years. She is an ac- 
complished musician; has written considerably for the press; 
and is an ardent lover of books. Being specially well posted 
upon political subjects, she exhibits a vital and becoming 



Prominent Women of Texas. 179 

interest in the issues of the day. Mrs, Williams' daughter^ 
Mrs. Mary Settle, inherits her mother's literary tastes, is cor- 
respondent for army and navy journals, and a member of 
the Woman's Press Association of America. 

The second daughter married Chief Justice John James. 
She has a third daughter, Miss Leta Williams, and a son, Mr. 
Tyler Curtis Williams, an attorney. 

Mrs. L. W. Goodrich, the daughter of Judge N. W. 
Battle, is the granddaughter of Hon. E. G. Cabaniss, the 
eminent jurist of Georgia, who was elected to Congress soon, 
after the surrender, but was, with other Southern Members, 
refused his seat in view of the new and arbitrary system of 
reconstruction which Congress had at that time determined 
upon. Judge Battle came to Waco in 1850, and it was here 
in 1869 that his daughter, Miss Alice, became the wife of 
Judge L. W. Goodrich, of Waco, who was elected in 1894 to 
his third term for the nineteenth Judicial District. Cultivated 
and refined, Mrs. Goodrich meets with grace and ease the 
claims of society. She never doubts her husband's success in 
his chosen avocation, and around his pathway her encour- 
agement is a beacon light that never grows dim. Existing 
in the sunshine of a happy home, she reflects upon others her 
own quiet peace. Many women with fame world-wide might 
look with envy upon this mother of modest mien, surrounded 
by her children, her hands tied by a thousand silken chords 
of love to the tasks of home. She lives her own life, sweet 
violet like, close to the hearts of those about her. Bravely 
meeting the round of duties, uniting into one inheritance a 
house- wife's legacies of a hundred trades, and illustrating by 
her ceaseless devotion to them 

" How beautiful the law of love 
Can make the cares of daily life." 

Mrs. H. C. Stone. — In eighteen hundred and forty-one^ 
Nacogdoches was the Athens of the young Republic of Texas, 
and many prominent and scholarly men made their homes 
there. Judge Edward T. Branch was presiding judge of the 



180 Prominent Women of Texas. 

district, and he and his wife, were making this their headquar- 
ters, and boarding in the home of General and Mrs. Thomas 
J. Husk. Here their eldest child was born, a daughter, Cor- 
nelia Branch. After the battle of San Jacinto, General Hous- 
ton spent some time in General Eusk's home, kindly ministered 
to by Mrs. Rusk, during his period of lameness, caused by 
a wound received in the ankle, on that decisive field. One of 
his friends had presented him with a very large easy chair of 
home manufacture, in which he might have a change of 
position when desired, and this relic was still in Mrs. Rusk's 
possession, and was brought forth for the cradle of the young 
child. Doctor Irvin, who was a well-known physician of that 
day, and an ardent Houston man, would look on the infant, 
so cradled, and remark, that "she was bound to be a great 
woman, cradled as she was, in the 'Old Chiefs' chair." When 
little more than a year old, her father went to Liberty 
County, and from there she was sent, at eight years of age, 
to Galveston, then only a small town, where she attended a 
school established by the Rev. McCullough and his sisters. 
A school that flourished with wonderful success until the sum- 
mers of fifty-three and four, when the sisters, Mrs. Riddell and 
Miss McCullough fell victims to the yellow fever, and the 
school was broken up. Before opening this school, Mr. 
McCullough had been the first pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church at Galveston, and prior to this, a pioneer missionary 
of the Republic. During the childhood of Miss Branch, her 
father was afflicted with almost total blindness, for a period 
of four years, and during this time she read to him any- 
thing that his taste dictated, which was of a highly cul- 
tivated order, and to this source, more than to schools, was 
due the formation of her mental character. A Daughter of the 
Republic of Texas, her heart glows with a warm patriotism, 
and when she felt that the rights of the South were threatened 
she entered with an earnest zeal into the cause of the South, 
laboring jointly with her mother in the hospitals, and in pro- 
curing money and clothing for the soldiers in the field. At 
the early age of fifteen she was married to Mr. H. C. Stone, a 
man of sterling; character. Her associations all through life 



Prominent Women of Texas. 181 

have been much with men of note, and this, with extensive 
travel at home and abroad, has tended to give an attraction 
to her conversation. In her life of a little more than a half 
century, she has lived under four changes of government in 
Texas. She has only one child, a son, Harry Branch Stone. 

Mrs. Eva L. Barden has always exercised an influence 
widely acknowledged. A decided literary taste has led her to 
read extensively, and a capacity for prose composition has 
been a resource for her leisure moments without detracting 
from the more delicate shades of feminine character. During 
the early period of her life spent in Chicago, Mrs. Barden im- 
proved the educational advantages offered her by sharing 
the laborious studies of her brother, Mr. Barber Lewis, who 
in after years made a brilliant congressional record. She is 
a descendant of the Barber family of Virginia and of the 
Gardners of Gardner's Island, New York. Her grandfather 
Lewis served through the Revolution. The death of her 
husband, Judge T. C. Barden, left her a widow in 1877 with 
two sons, Erskine B. and Edmund T. Barden. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

"WELL KNO"WTSr IN SOCIAL LIFE. 

MRS. WILLIAM M. RICE — MRS. J. A. BUCKLER — MESDAMES 
m'donald and DOWNMAN. 



Mrs. William M. Rice. — Distinguished alike for the 
dignity of her social functions, the elegance of her hos- 
pitality and the breadth of her benevolence, Mrs. Rice 
ranks easily with the foremost women of the South in 
all that concerns the most graceful offices of her sex. 
Her handsome presence, courtly manners and genial ad- 
dress unite in her the qualities essential to the success 
of the part she plays in the drama of life. Add to these 



182 Prominent Women of Texas. 

her consummate knowledge of human nature, with her 
broad charity in interpreting it, and her gentle humor in con- 
ciliating it, and the result is a character whose influence is ir- 
resistible throughout the domain of polite society. Thus 
equipped by instinct and by culture, Mrs. Rice readily as- 
sumes the role of representing, on important occasions, the 
proverbial refinement and generosity of her native city. 
When the daughter of the late president of the Confederacy 
recently visited Houston, her reception and entertainment 
by Mrs. Rice were of a kind to illustrate both the manners 
and the resources of the winsome hostess. 

Mrs. Rice w^as born in the city of Houston and, as Miss 
Elizabeth Baldwin, was as popular a member of its society 
as she is in her maturer years. Her father was Mayor Bald- 
win, chief magistrate of the young town in the days of the 
Republic. She is related to the Astor family, of New York, 
through whom in her frequent visits, she has enjoyed un- 
rivaled advantages in seeing society as it is organized in the 
most splendid and aristocratic city of America. She is also 
related to distinguished Southerners, among others to Judge 
Baldwin, of Mississippi. 

After her marriage, Mrs. Rice gave much thought to the 
inauguration of systematic benevolence through which she 
hoped, by her efforts and her contributions, to produce the 
best attainable results for the largest number of beneficiaries. 
In consequence of her interest in this direction, her husband, 
AVilliam M. Rice, about three years ago founded the " Wm. M. 
nice Institute for the Advancement of Literature, Science and 
Art," with domicile at Houston and with interest-bearing en- 
dowment of $200,000. The wife, following the example of 
her generous husband, supplemented this gift, and, together, 
they have since added further endowments until the aggre- 
gate funds of the institute now amount to a third of a mil- 
lion of dollars. A very valuable six-acre lot, in the city of 
Houston, has also been bought for the institute by its hberal 
founders and the erection of suitable buildings will follow as 
fast as the plans are matured. The establishment will com- 
prise a public library and a polytechnic school, the former for 



Prominent Women of Texas. 183 

the free use of the people, and the latter for their gratuitous 
instruction in practical branches of learning, open to all 
Texans, men and women alike. A board of trustees, com- 
posed of seven citizens of Houston, has been chosen, and 
Mrs Rice is already in the field making and classifying col- 
lections for the fine arts department, over which she will 
specially preside. 

In estimating the importance of the Rice contribution to 
the general relief, no small part of its value will be found due 
to the peculiar nature of the gift and to the timely manner 
of its giving. The progress of discovery and invention has 
created new industries, and supplanted old ones, and, in so 
doing, it has created a demand for skilled labor and made 
vacant m any of the places of the unskilled . The consequence 
of this revolution in the laboring world has been to relegate 
to idleness and want, multitudes of strong, willing and intel- 
ligent workers. The wise and seasonable inspiration of Mrs. 
Rice proposes a remedy for the evil. Free of cost, the manual 
laborer may acquire technical training and thus be fitted for 
his new condition in life. Unspeakable calamities will be 
averted, and honors untold will crown the work of a public 
benefactress. 

Mrs. J. A. Buckler. — One has only to look into the 
face of "Mrs. Judge Buckler," as she is known to her large 
circle of devoted friends in San Antonio, to understand the 
cause of her universal popularity and that quality of high 
regard which has protected her from the shafts of adverse 
criticism, albeit dwelling "in the white light that beats about 
a throne." For she is a social leader well known throughout 
Texas. 

Her noble, lovely face reflects the beautiful soul and lucid 
intellect which animates her whole being. Her warm friend- 
ships, her genial temperament, her correct judgment and del- 
icate tact, her exquisite taste in all matters, personal, 
domestic and social, combine to give her the great influence 
which she exerts for good, not only in her home in San An- 
tonio, but wherever she is known. 



184 Prominent Women op Texas. 

A blonde of that fair English type which drew from Pope 
Gregory the First the exclamation about some British chil- 
dren brought as captives to Rome: "Angles do you say 
these children are? Say, rather, they are angels." Mrs. 
Buckler is one of those rare women who, attaching no undue 
importance to the beauty which is only a fading flower at 
best, knows that it is a heaven-given dower to be utilized 
only for the highest purposes and aims. She dresses with ex- 
quisite taste, but her every movement and look impresses the 
beholder with the conviction that this is the result of a con- 
scientious love of the true and the beautiful, not the outcome 
of petty feminine vanity. She is too well-born and too well- 
bred to violate the laws of good taste and "good form" in 
this or any other matter pertaining to social ethics. 

It is not generally known that her presence in the senate 
chamber of Kentuck}^ once served as an inspiration to the 
famous author of "The Moneyless Man," but the poem con- 
taining the description of her, and published by him in The 
Louisville Journal, has been copied far and wide. 

Mrs. Buckler was, until the past summer, the treasurer of 
that esthetic organization of the ladies of San Antonio, " The 
Flower Battle Association," having resigned that position, 
which she filled so admirably, to go North. While her func- 
tions, as that oflScer, could well be supplied by another 
capable and public-spirited w^oman, her loss, as a social 
factor in the success of its annual fete, was universally re- 
gretted. The young people of San Antonio, as well as her 
sister ofiicers and members of this association, missed, 
while remembering the inspiration of, their most popular and 
enthusiastic promoter of the beautiful and allegorical fes- 
tival imported from the sunny skies of Italy to those of 
Texas, in a city founded by the followers of St. Francis of 
Assizi, and named for the Great Saint Anthony of Padua. 
Now beneath the shadow of the Alamo, under the walls of 
the old Mission House, flow^er-emblazoned with the names of 
Bowie, Crockett and Travis, while over them waves the flag 
of The Lone Star, with "Remember the Alamo" on its fair 
field, there gathers every year a joyous throng of the beauty 



1! 




t 





MRS. R. H. DOWNMAN. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 185 

and chivalry of San Antonio vieing each with each to make 
this new southland festival of flowers a dream of fairy land. 
In such a setting- how lovely beams the fair and noble face 
of its favorite society queen, Mrs. Buckler, 

Mrs. F. a. McDonald, Mrs. R. H. Downman. — The 
social element of Fort Worth is strikingly composite in its 
character, uniting to the amenities the energies of life and 
thereby infusing both grace and strength into the struc- 
ture. To this element belong the character and culture of 
the city as seen in the social life of her prominent citizens of 
both sexes. Among these none are more conspicuous than 
Mrs. F. A. McDonald and Mrs. R. H. Downman, daughters 
of Mr. William Cameron, and relatives of one of the most 
notable heroes of Texas history, Capt. Ewing Cameron, 
honored by the State in having one of her counties named 
for him. 

The Cameron family is of Scottish origin, and Captain 
Cameron was himself a Scotchman. He came to Texas in the 
early years of the Republic, and, in 1839, with about two 
hundred other Texans, joined the forces of Canales to enforce 
the secession of the insurgent provinces from Mexico and set 
up a government of their own, to be called the "Republic of 
the Rio Grande." After a vain struggle of about a year, the 
insurgents capitulated and their Texan allies recrossed into 
their own country. In 1842 Captain Cameron commanded a 
company in the ill-starred Mier expedition, of three hundred 
Texans, led by Colonel Fisher, into Mexico. On Christmas 
day they entered the tow^n of Mier, and, on the day following, 
fought two thousand of the enemy until their ammunition was 
exhausted, when they surrendered under the usual conditions 
of civilized warfare. Under a strong guard their march was 
directed to the City of Mexico, and from the beginning they 
suffered all the ills of privation, exposure and cruelty. This 
barbarous violation of treaty aroused the spirit of resistance. 
Arriving at the Hacienda Salado they formed the desperate 
resolve of making a break for liberty. At a concerted signal 
from Captain Cameron, they rushed upon their keepers, 



186 Pkominent Women of Texas. 

disarmed them and turned their faces homeward. Choosing 
the pathless mountains as their route, thej were soon lost 
and bewildered, and for weeks wandered in utter confusion, 
suffering from hunger, thirst and disease. Many died or had 
to be left to their fate ; nearly all threw away their arms, and 
drifted apart from each other in search of w^ater and food. 
In this plight they w^ere overtaken by the pursuing cavalry, 
recaptured and taken back to Salado. There, on the 25th of 
March, the lottery of death was drawn. Santa Anna de- 
manded the blood of every tenth man, as the price of his 
mercy toward the others. White and black beans represented 
the blank and prize number in the ghoulish drawing, and sev- 
enteen prisoners fell to the executioner. Captain Cameron 
passed safely through this ordeal, but only to be reserved for 
a more signal exhibition of perfidy. When within eighteen 
miles of the City of Mexico the surviving prisoners and their 
escort were met by a courier bearing the death sentence of 
Captain Cameron. Despite the appeals and protestations of 
his companions, he was shot. He met his doom with a forti- 
tude and intrepidity unsurpassed in history. 

Gentle, social, loyal in life, he w^as brave, fearless, un- 
daunted in death, leaving to the world the splendid example 
of his heroism, for 

"The greatest gift the hero leaves his race, 
Is to have been a hero." 

The name of Cameron is honored by every Texan, and 
Texas is proud to number among her people those in whom 
flows the unsullied blood of his race; and when in them is also 
found an individual worth of their own, they are doubly 
valued. Of these are Mesdames McDonald and Downman. 
Within the penetralia of their cheerful homes burns the in- 
cense that inspires bright and noble purpose, and around 
them is diffused a gladness that attracts admiring guests to 
their hospitable doors. The spirit of harmony pervades their 
little world like that which breathes order into the greater 
kosmos, and from it emanates the sweet influence that binds 
all hearts to their own. Marked by strong personality, they 




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Prominent Women of Texas. 187 

give form to their environments and impart to the present a 
reality more potent and more wholesome, if not more classic, 
than that with which poets and sages clothe the past. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

MRS. ELLA HUTCHINS SYDNOR — ^MRS. ALEXANDER SANGER — 

MRS. JOSEPH NALLE — MRS. R. B. PARROTT 

— MRS. JOHN J. STEVENS. 



Mrs. Ella Hutchins Sydnor was born at Houston, 
Texas, where her family is numbered among the oldest 
and most influential of the old regime. She was sent at an 
early age to Europe to be educated, and dividing her resi- 
dence in London and Paris, acquired that fine culture of 
mind and delicate finish of manner for which she is dis- 
tinguished. Her career since her return to her native State 
has been a brilliant one socially and intellectually. At the 
head of almost every progressive movement in the wide 
circle in which she is known, she has found abundant 
scope for her varied talents. Since the publication of 
her book, "Gems from a Texas Quarry," a few years ago, 
she has contributed a number of interesting papers, 
chiefly on Texas history, to the Ladies' Reading Club at 
Houston. 

Mrs. Sydnor is an officer in several large charitable in- 
stitutions. She is a Daughter of the American Revolution, 
a Daughter of the Republic of Texas, and a Daughter of the 
Confederacy. 

Socially, Mrs. Sydnor is an acknowledged leader. She is a 
delightful talker, a linguist, and possesses with all these gifts 
the art of making herself beloved by those who come in con- 
tact with her womanly presence. 

Mrs. Alexander Sanger. — The Hebrew born and nur- 
tured on the soil of Germany rarely fails to add Teutonic 
mental vigor to his own traditional civilization, a civilization 



188 Prominent Women of Texas. 

rocked in the cradle of forty centuries. From such Teu- 
tonic Hebrew stock, tracing its origin through Rabbinical 
ancestry, noted for its culture and intelligence, is descended 
Mrs. Alexander Sanger, nee Miss Fannie Fechenbach, one of 
the most prominent leaders of the social world of Dallas, 
Texas. 

The subtle charm that emanates from hereditary social 
rank and culture is felt by all who come in contact with Mrs. 
Sanger, for she is more than beautiful or handsome, she is 
charming, elegant, refined. A traveler, both in America and 
Europe, and thrown by her superior mental gifts, as well as 
by family traditions, in contact with the best circles of soci- 
ety wherever she goes, she wins and retains through the law 
of natural attraction an unusual number of friends among 
"people who are well worth knowing." 

Nor is it owing to her wealth, culture, exquisite taste and 
traditional rights alone that she holds her rank as one of 
the queens of society. Her kind heart, her generous mind, 
and her noble nature make her not only a beneficent friend in 
private, but also a liberal contributor of her ample means, 
her valuable time and intelligent thought to every charitable 
cause, benefit and entertainment brought to her attention. 
And in this direction she is aided by her husband, for Mr. 
Sanger's success in commercial and financial circles is only 
equaled by the largeness of his views and the liberality of his 
enterprises in promoting the prosperity of the cit^^ of Dallas. 
Hence in their splendid home, the graceful mistress of the 
mansion gleams a pearl of purest ray serene, fitly set among 
the gems of art and souvenirs of value and legendary interest 
contained in the richly furnished, tastefully decorated, 
shadowy salons and sumptuous apartments of the Sanger 
mansion. 

The refined accomplishments possessed by Mrs. Sanger 
are not for the general public, but as a reader of artistic 
merit she is known and appreciated by her own selected 
circle. When seen in society at any of its numerous func- 
tions, or on the promenade or drive, her elegant personality 
asserts itself in the tasteful and fashionable gowning and 



Prominent Women of Texas. 189 

accessories of the toilet which she knows so well how to use 
without permitting their trivialities to futilize her innate 
mental strength. 

Mrs. Joseph Nalle. — The capital of Texas is resplen- 
dent with beautiful homes, and the names of her noble 
women are s^'nouyms of graceful culture. Among these, 
there is no finer character than Mrs. Nalle. 

Texas has many fair adopted daughters from the older 
States. Among those fine specimens of womanhood, came a 
young matron, with her husband and little children, from 
the pastoral lands of Luray, Virginia, to become the charm- 
ing central attraction of a new home in the West. Young, 
liberally educated, handsome, and more than all these, en- 
dowed with a fine mind and feeling heart, she could not fail 
to make a deep and lasting impression on all who came 
within the radius of her influence. With Austin, she has 
passed from early youth to beautiful maturity, both having 
kept pace with the march of progress. All classes recognize 
in this excellent w^oman the graceful embodiment of success 
and worth. Her charities flow as freely as her kind, sympa- 
thetic feelings ; not in words alone, but in practical relief to 
the sick, the suffering, the sorrowful. Wealth, through her 
gentle ministering hands is only one of the avenues of useful- 
ness. 

The little cottage, to which they came twenty-five years 
ago, has been replaced by a mansion, where the imposing in 
architectural design is lost in graceful beauty. It is complete 
in all its arrangements and furnishings, containing every 
modern attraction and appliance for household purposes, 
every detail of convenience for home comfort and the enter- 
tainment of friends. The marble floor of the entrance leads 
to costly, yet comfortable and tasteful surroundings, and, 
amid this splendor, moves a truly noble woman, quietly do- 
ing good. Around her have grown up an interesting family, 
who have found her "blessed among women." Her impress 
here, like that she has made upon the society of Austin, is re- 
fining and good. She is amiable and lovable, and it is said 



190 Prominent Women of Texas. 

of her that not a moment of coldness has ever existed be- 
tween her and her friends. Such a nature deserves wealth, 
palatial surroundings, devoted friends. 

Mrs. R. B. Parrott has been for man}' years an orna- 
ment to society and is in no ordinary degree esteemed and 
beloved. She has passed her youth and womanhood in Waco 
and at her own home in this city has welcomed many dis- 
tinguished guests. Her varied mental qualities render her 
conversation delightful and she speaks from a full heart of 
the beautiful in nature and art. Beneath her mental wealth, 
courage exists in proportionate strength, and of late this 
quality has been called into requisition, for a shadow lies 
upon her heart and is reflected upon her face, telling that she 
has entered the temple of physical pain. 

Mrs. John J. Stevens, the well-known leader in chari- 
table movements, and the soul of social and hospitable 
entertainments in San Antonio, has endeared herself to a 
large circle of admiring friends by her rare qualifications as 
an organizer and her genial nature as a social leader. 

She is the vice president of the Battle of Flowers Associa- 
tion of San Antonio, one of the original promoters of this 
beautiful festival, which has been celebrated under the 
shadow of the Alamo for three years past. Mrs. Stevens 
evinced taste by her appreciation of the artistic beauty of 
this medieval, Italian fete. The genius w^hich conceived the 
idea of transplanting this flower festival of the old world 
and the past, to this part of the new world, where so much of 
the population claim the mingled blood of the Latin, the Gaul 
and the Saxon, was worthy of the families from which Mrs. 
Stevens sprang. 

A Simpson on one side and a Caldwell on the other— she 
is a cousin of John Caldwell Calhoun— and is closely related 
to many of the most distinguished old families of the South. 

The same executive ability and enthusiasm displayed by 
Mrs. Stevens in this spring carnival of the Southwest, she 
carries into a work of more important significance, being the 







A 



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'A-' 



-^ 



I 



MISS MARY ABBOTT. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 191 

first vice president of the Orphans' Home of San Antonio. 
Indeed, wherever a good work is to be done, demanding in- 
telligence and the substantial qualities of a leader, Mrs. 
Stevens is to be found among those who labor to advance its 
best interest. 

Nor is it alone in public work that she is known. In 
domestic life and by her intimate friends she is greatly valued 
for strong and genuine traits of character. In the attractive 
interior of her well-ordered home, she moves a "noble wo- 
man, nobly planned, to warn, to comfort and command; " 
to command by her gentle nature and attractive personality 
and presence, the respect and love of all who come in contact 
with her, and to retain a more than usual share of such en- 
nobling influences as years shall roll on and add maturing; 
graces. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

MRS. MARY ABBOTT JONES — MRS. JOHNNIE HOUSE — MRS. 

ALEXANDER W. TERRELL — MRS. HERMAN KAMP- 

MAN — MRS. EDWARD ROTAN — MRS. 

JULES E. SCHNEIDER. 



Mrs. Mary Abbott Jones, of Hillsboro, the daughter 
of Congressman Abbott, is popular and prominent. Per- 
sonally she is rarely beautiful in face, form and expression, 
while her remarkable talent for society has made her the 
recipient of unusual social attentions for several winters past 
in Washington. Gifted with a fine power of expression, her 
full, speaking eyes and mobile features give to her conversa- 
tion a charm which is rare, even in women whose minds are 
highly cultivated, and who possess, as Mrs. Jones does, 
along with intellectual acquirements, that subtle charm of 
the culture which is the result of the best associations in life. 
Educated in the East, she has returned to her native State 
with both an innate and a cultivated taste for the best 
literature and the highest culture. With such advantages 



192 Pkominent Women of Texas. 

and tastes it is not surprising that she should be sought by 
society in the best sense of the word. At the receptions of 
the Governor of Texas, as well as in the homes of the most 
distinguished public men, she is the honored, beloved and 
feted guest of their wives and daughters. A perfect mistress 
of the arts of the toilet, she dresses with exquisite taste and 
is the very life and soul of every occasion graced by her 
charming presence. Mrs. Jones is a descendant of the best 
old Scotch and English blood of the State of Maryland. From 
her mother's side she inherits the beauty of the lovely Miss 
Kosalie Smith, whose untimely death was so deeply mourned, 
and she is also related to the Mrs. Rowena Sturgis Cowen, 
who is noted for her many charms of person. 

" "Who can curiously behold 

The smoothness and the sheen of beauty's cheek, 
And feel his heart can ever all grow old ? " 

Mrs. Johnnie House, of Houston, possesses personal 
beauty and is a delightful conversationalist. To these en- 
dowments she adds graceful courtesy, kindness of heart, and 
exquisite taste in all matters, personal and domestic. She 
has made her home so attractive that it has ever been the 
favorite resort of the refined and the youthful, while her 
varied attainments have enabled her to afford them enjoy- 
ment. By marriage Mrs. House is allied to one of the oldest 
families in the State. She occupies an enviable position 
founded on universal esteem. 

Mrs. Alexander W. Terrell was born and bred in the 
South. Her home is fixed in Austin, though she travels ex- 
tensively with her husband, and wherever they go Mrs. 
Terrell is the center and star of attraction, as she is an 
ornament to diplomatic society. She possesses much 
streng-th of character and an attractive personality^ To her 
culture she unites sound judgment, and that inbred fine- 
ness which is the crowning grace of true womanhood. Mrs. 
Terrell passed a year very pleasantly in Constantinople, 
w^here she dined with the Sultan and met the representatives 



Prominent Women of Texas. 193 

of France, Greece, Russia, and Turkey. During her stay in 
Europe she had many opportunities to observe the interest- 
ing phases of society. Mrs. Terrell has a generous nature 
and in conversation exalts all that is noble in human nature, 
and gives to the misfortunes of existence a sunny softness 
and coloring, like the subdued light in a Turner picture. 

Mrs. Herman Kampman is prominent in all noble and 
charitable work, as she has been in society, by right of intel- 
lectual gifts, and a generous, sympathetic nature. Her 
beauty, judgment and discrimination enable her to exercise 
an influence widely acknowledged, while her sunny, genial 
disposition and cordial manner illustrate a peculiar charm 
of Southern character. Her palatial home is surrounded by 
palms and beautiful plants, which are covered by unfading 
verdure, flourishing amid the eternal spring tide of San 
Antonio. This home is th6 center of an elegant circle of 
society, the resort of the cultivated, and it is here its mistress 
delights to dispense the courtesies and kind offices of true 
hospitality. 

Mrs. Edward Rotan is the daughter of Judge J. L. L. 
McCall, whowas a prominent lawyer at an early day in Texas. 
He was at one time the law partner of Senator Richard Coke, 
and at a later period became a member of the law firm of 
McCall & Norris. Mrs. Rotan 's early associations in life 
inspired intellectual achievement, and developed the force of 
character which has eminently qualified her for usefulness. 
Of The Home, a charitable institution in Waco, she is the 
especial patroness. Active l)enevolence is the appropriate 
field for woman, and Mrs. Rotan's influence is extended by 
the possession of intellect, social position and ample means. 

Mrs. Jules E. SCHNEiDER.of Dallas.— Miss Belle Fonda, 
the noted beauty and belle of Louisville, Kentucky, in which 
city she was born, is a descendant on her father's side of one 
of the oldest Dutch Knickerbocker families of New York. In 
1879 she married Mr. Jules E. Schneider, of New Orleans, and 

p. W. of T.— 13 



194 Prominent Women of Texas. 

came to Texas to make Dallas her home. The Schneiders 
have proven a valuable acquisition to the cit}^ Not only is 
their home one of the most palatial and beautiful in that 
city of charming homes, but in addition to this, its lovely 
mistress, besides being an acknowledged and graceful social 
leader, is one of the most liberal patrons of music, art and 
charitable institutions in a city noted for its public-spirited 
and philanthropic women. 

The Women's Home, a noble institution for homeless and 
sick women, counts Mrs. Schneider among its charter mem- 
bers, officers and most generous supporters; and of the 
Orphans' Home and all other charitable institutions of 
Dallas she is a liberal patroness. The benefaction of such a 
home as Mrs. Schneider's to the city of Dallas is appreciated 
by those who have the entree to the social functions of the 
house. It is a veritable casket of art, enriched by the critical 
collections of its mistress during her extensive travels on the 
other side of the water as well as in America. Here are seen, 
among the splendors of their surroundings, "rare bits" that 
money could not buy, while from her jewel casket glow and 
flash gems and jewels that a duchess, a queen, or even a Mrs. 
Astor might envy. Her brilliant entertainments are famed 
far and wide, but the exquisite, subtle charm of a hostess 
"to the manor born" and gifted with "a spirit pure and 
bright," can scarcely be imagined by those who have not the 
honor and boon of her friendship or acquaintance. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

MRS. C. 8. HOUSE — MRS. HARRY PRINCE — MISS MADGE 

WILLIAMS— MRS. WM. GARNER — MRS. H. C. 

SILLIMAN — MRS. J. W. SWAIN. 



Mrs. C. S. House will be remembered as Miss Mary 
Shearn. Her home has been fixed in Houston for a number 
of years, where she has an extensive circle of friends, and 
where she exerts the gentlest and sweetest of womanly 




MRS. KATIE HOUSE-CAMP. 



Prominent Women of Texas. 195 

influences. Though surrounded by luxury and in the full en- 
joyment of every terrestrial pleasure, her nature has re- 
mained unspoiled. Her manners are graceful and unaffected, 
giving evidence of her mental culture and elevated nature. 
The taste which displays itself in her love of music, painting, 
and sculpture, has always appeared in her style of dress, and 
her costumes are rich without being ostentatious. The 
House mansion on Main Street is famed for elegant hospi- 
tality in small social gatherings, as well as more elaborate 
entertainments. Beared in this atmosphere, the lovely 
daughter, Katie, received the advantages of fortune and 
judicious culture. She is a graceful representative of her 
mother, to whom she is devoted, and in this instance the 
filial relation is fully realized. In the bloom of her early 
youth she was married to Hon. Berry Camp, of Fort 
Worth. 

'X. Mrs. Harry Prince, nee Miss Cornelia Kiam.— Happi- 
ness is a wonderful beautifier, and the beauty of a happy 
wife is one that surpasses all others, even that exquisite 
fleeting loveliness of young girlhood which the French, for 
some inexplicable reason, call la beaut e du diable. Con- 
templating the beauty of the loveliest and fairest flower 
brought to its highest point of perfection by the hands that 
have tended it and watched its growth from bud to bloom, 
we do not forget the care that has developed and protected 
its loveliness. Admiring the beauty of a wife we do not for- 
get that her radiant face is the mirror in which is reflected 
the courtesy, the chivalry of the husband. This quality of 
happiness and beauty asserts itself in the countenance of 
Mrs. Harry Prince, nee Miss Corneha Kiam, who has passed 
the brief years of her life in Houston. There she is the cen- 
tral figure in a coterie of refined and cultivated women, the 
fit associates of one whose rare personal gifts attract a host 
of friends. Mrs. Prince entertains her guests with a lavish 
hospitality, graceful elegance and entente cordiale, which, 
insures her popularity in a city famed for its social cul- 
ture and refined hospitality. Without being absorbed in 



196 Prominent Women of Texas. 

fashionable life, Mr. and Mrs. Prince are genial. They do not 
refuse to frequently be drawn into the social life of Houston, 
and it goes without saying that the inherited grace, beauty 
and intelligence of the lovely wife is the theme and inspira- 
tion of every fete to which she lends her presence. 

Miss Madge Williams was chosen by Texas to christen 
the war ship ' ' Texas' ' at Portsmouth, Virginia, two years ago, 
and during her stay in that State was the recipient of many 
social courtesies. She was chaperoned by her mother and 
was entertained with refined and lavish hospitality by many 
prominent people in Virginia and elsewhere. Her Southern 
tour proved a continued ovation, and the homage paid her 
was an appropriate tribute to her beauty and intellectual 
charms. Miss Williams' home is at Independence, Texas, 
where her life of quiet seclusion serves to bring in piquant 
contrast the stormy periods of another era in which her 
grandfather, General Houston, played a distinguished part 
as the hero of San Jacinto. 

Mrs. Wm. Garner, of Nacogdoches, Texas, won distinc- 
tion in social life. She became the wife of Commodore 
William Garner, the multi-millionaire and merchant prince 
of New York. They were both drowned in 1876 by the 
capsizing of their yacht, the "Mohawk," in New York harbor. 
Mrs. Garner's youngest daughter, Florence, married Sir 
William Gordon Cummings, who, with the Prince of Wales, 
acquired notoriety in the London baccarat scandal. 

Mrs. H. C. Silliman often refers to her old friends 
throughout England and to the scenes of her unfettered 
childhood. She is an enthusiastic traveler, and has an 
artist's love of nature. Her palatial home in Fort Worth 
has been adorned by many souvenirs rich in historic associa- 
tion, valued by their owner not only as curios, but as links 
connecting her present life with former days. The home is 
"given to hospitality," and though its mistress thoroughly 
enjoys quiet visiting among her friends, she frequently 



Prominent Women of Texas. 197 

entertains in a lavish way, and has often extended a cordial 
welcome to members of conventions and to distinguished 
persons visiting the city. Mrs. Silliman has much talent as 
an artist. Her most striking characteristic is her practical 
sense, which is a union of all the senses. She has much 
executive abihty and fine gifts of intuition. Kind and char- 
itable, she freely confers material benefits and, by exert- 
ing her own buoyant spirit, inspires others to put aside their 
burdens and accept her cheerful views of life. 

Mrs. J. W. Swain, of Clarksville, exerts a wide influence 
in the eastern part of the State. Kefined and agreeable, she 
has a heart full of warm sensibihties, a lofty spirit and a 
mind of noble cast. These are the qualities which have 
enabled her to make an abiding impression, and influence 
those with whom she is associated. During the past few 
years, Mrs. Swain has suffered many sorrows in the loss of 
members of her family, and during her retirement has been 
offered the solacing companionship of devoted friends, and 
has at all times commanded the highest consideration. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

MRS. WALES J. TOWNSEND — MRS. CORA BACON FOSTER — MRS. 
AUSTIN POLLARD BOYD — MRS. KATE C. CURRIE — MRS. 
BETTIE BRYAN — MRS. BENEDETTE B. TOBIN 
— MRS. MARY ELIZABETH LEASE. 



Mrs. Wales J. Townsend. — This estimable lady was 
the daughter of Robert M. Forbes, and his wife, nee Mary 
J. Read. She was born in Port Lavaca, Texas, where her 
father was a prominent merchant for many years, having 
previously served in the congress of the Republic, and in 
the convention which formed the first constitution of the 
State, in 1845. He was born in Westmoreland County, 
Virginia, descended from early settlers in that county ; one of 
his ancestors served in the House of Burgesses from 1649 to 



.V' 



r^' 



198 Prominent Women of Texas. 

1666. In 1848 Mr. Forbes, in Port Lavaca, married Miss 
Read, a o^randdaug-hter of the Rev. Finis Ewing, one of the 
three founders of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, whose 
sons became eminent men in Missouri and Illinois. Mr. and 
Mrs. Forbes had four daughters and three sons, among these 
Mrs. Wm. G. Sterett, now of Washington City. Two of the 
sisters, Florence Jeannette, wife of W. A. Blackwell, and 
Mrs. Maggie Starker, live in Cuero, Texas. In Port Lavaca, 
Miss Alice, an intelligent and charming young lady, married 
Mr. Wales J. Townsend, who soon removed to Dallas, where 
they have since resided, having a beautiful home, given to 
hospitality, covering all the amenities of social life and mov- 
ing in a large circle of the most refined and estimable families 
in the city, winning and holding their esteem by charms nat- 
urally springing from her heart, and in every sense being a 
noble wife, mother and friend. 

Mrs. Cora Bacon Foster is a conspicuous figure in 
the business world. Upon the death of her husband she in- 
vested her means in real estate, opened an ofiice in Houston, 
and began buying and selling for herself and others. She 
has transacted a large and successful business, and is a fair 
example of a woman's ability to succeed in practical life. 

Mrs. Austin Pollard Boyd. — Among the many active, 
philanthropic, and public-spirited women, of Texas none more 
worthily wear the civic bays than Mrs. Austin Pollard Boyd ; 
and among all the bright, progressive towns of Texas none 
is more attractive than the pretty city of Paris — the home of 
Mrs. Boyd, and for more than a quarter of a century the 
scene of her devoted toil. 

She was born in Alabama, reared in Georgia, married in 
Mississippi, and has lived the most of her life in Texas. On 
arriving in the frontier State, she at first murmured at the 
discomforts incident to a new country, but she soon adapted 
herself to her environments, realized her proper relation to 
the land of her adoption, and recognized her duty to aid in 
its development — nor did she tarry in the performance of 



Prominent Women of Texas. 199 

that duty ; in the spirit of Lady Macbeth's advice to her 
noble guests, she did not stand upon the order of her acting, 
but acted at once, and Paris, upon the instant, felt the im- 
pulse. Aided and encouraged by her husband she, thence- 
forward, aligned herself with the noble women of her town 
and threw the force of her energetic life into every scheme de- 
vised for its moral and material advancement. Each new 
work seemed to reft^esh and strengthen her for renewed effort, 
and thus followed the projects for civil and social progress 
that have culminated in the culture, enterprise, and refine- 
ment of the beautiful city of Paris. 

The combination of rare feminine instinct with robust, 
masculine intellect in Mrs. Boyd, eminently fit her for her 
work, to the support of which she is enabled to bring the in- 
fluence of the press, owing to her connection with the news- 
paper fraternity. 

Whether as secretary of the Woman's Christian Tem- 
perance Union, or of the Woman's Parsonage and Home 
Mission Society of the Methodist Church, or of the Ladies' 
Auxiliary Society, or of the Woman's Industrial Home, or 
of the Hospital for the Poor, Mrs. Boyd has evinced won- 
drous capacity, skill and courage. Each of the associations 
in which she has worked has been a pronounced blessing to 
Paris. Its Charity Hospital and its Industrial Home are 
sources of incalculable beneficence to the poor, and its 
picturesque cemetery is a perpetual tribute of praise to the 
virtue of a people who honor their dead. Here, beneath two 
"sighing pines," brought from her native State, Mrs. Boyd 
hopes to rest after her life's work is done. She has built her 
own monument, and no shaft of stone can so well commem- 
orate her deeds. 

Mrs. Kate Cabell Currie, president of the Daughters 
of the Confederacy of Texas, is the daughter of Gen. William 
Lewis Cabell, who graduated at West Point in 1850, 
served in the United States Army until 1861, when he 
resigned and joined the Confederate Army and served 
with distinction until the close of the war. General Cabell's 



200 Peominent Women of Texas. 

father was Gen. Benj. W. S. Cabell, an officer in the War 
of 1812, and was after the close of hostilities between 
England and the United States, honored with many positions 
of trust, holding in succession the commissions of Major, 
Colonel, Brigadier General and Major General of militia, the 
last being by election of the General Assembly. He was a 
lawyer by profession, and a member of the Constitutional 
Convention of 1829-30, and member of the State senate from 
1837 to 1838. 

Mrs. Currie's mother, Harriett, was the daughter of Maj. 
Elias Rector, and his wife, Catherine J. Du Val. Major 
Rector was one of the quaint historic characters of Arkansas. 
He was the original of "The Fine Old Arkansas Gentleman,'* 
a parody by Gen. Albert Pike on the "Old Enghsh Gentle- 
man." Major Rector was the youngest son of Whorton 
Rector, one of the nine Rector brothers who w^ere soldiers in 
the War of 1812. He was a nephew of the celebrated Ann 
Rector, wife of Thomas Conway. He removed to Arkansas 
in 1825, and in 1835 married the gentle and much-loved 
Catherine Du Val. From that time until the war bereft him 
of his numerous slaves and other property, their home, 
which Gen. Albert Pike christened "Grouse Hill," became the 
center of generous and refined hospitality. Both Major and 
Mrs. Rector had an extended acquaintance with the promi- 
nent men of their own State, and elsewhere. Major Rector 
was appointed by General Jackson, United States ]\Iarshal of 
the Indian and Arkansas Territories, and he held the position 
sixteen years. Under President Pierce he was again ap- 
pointed Marshal. The Seminole chief, Billy Bowlegs, and his 
follow^ers, were removed from Florida to the Indian Territory 
by him. With such an ancestry, Mrs. Cabell could not fail to 
be a patriot, and in the war that followed soon after her 
marriage, she was both patriot and heroine, following her 
husband to every battlefield to nurse the wounded soldiers. 
"Baby Katie" came in the midst of the turmoil to gladden 
their hearts. Her father and mother took great interest in 
all that pertained to the days of '61-'65, and she inherited 
their love for "the lost cause." 



Prominent Women of Texas. 201 

General and Mrs. Cabell remained in Arkansas until 1873, 
when they removed to Dallas, Texas. General Cabell has 
filled positions of honor and trust, having been several times 
mayor of the city, United States Marshal under President 
Cleveland, and is now Lieutenant General of United Con- 
federate Veterans, to which organization he devotes much 
time and labor. 

Mrs. Currie was educated at the convents in Fort Smith 
and Dallas. She was a close student and, possessing a bril- 
liant mind and fine memory, her standing as a pupil was far 
above the average. Among the memorable events of her 
childhood days, she recalls the visits of President Jefferson 
Davis, Gen. Braxton Bragg, Gen. Albert Pike and Gen. Joe 
E. Johnston. She greatly enjoyed the visits of Gen. D. S. 
Stanley, of the United States Arm}^, and his reminiscences of 
the early days in the Indian Territory, when he and General 
Cabell were brother officers, defending the frontier from the 
Indians, and when Mrs. Stanley and Mrs. Cabell were the 
only white women at Fort Cobb. After the death of Mrs. 
Cabell in 1887, Mrs. Currie assumed the charge of her father's 
home and the care of her two younger brothers. She was 
married in 1889 to Mr. J. R. Currie. They have traveled ex- 
tensively and have visited the important cities of the United 
States and Canada. Boston greatly interested Mrs. Currie 
for the historic associations of old Fort Warren, where her 
father was a prisoner of war. As president of the Daughters 
of the Confederacy, Mrs. Currie takes great interest in all 
that pertains to Camp Sterling Price, and the duties of this 
office occupy much of her time. She is a brilliant conver- 
sationalist and presides with grace and dignity ovei* her 
father's home in Dallas. She has three brothers: Ben E., 
now the sheriff of Dallas County ; Lawrence Du Val, a cadet 
at West Point, and Lewis Rector, a student at the Virginia 
Military Institute. 

Mrs. Bettie Bryan, well known as a business woman, 
has high standing in the community in which she lives. En- 
dowed with energy, perseverance and great executive ability, 



202 Prominent Women op Texas. 

she has achieved marked success in the real estate business. 
She is public-spirited and enterprising, and her office in 
Houston is a rendezvous for those who wish to invest in 
realty. Mrs. Bryan is refined and cultured. Her home is 
one of the most attractive in the city, and the daughter of 
the house is quite popular in society. 

Mrs. Benedette B. Tobin was born at Camden, Arkan- 
sas, and educated in New Orleans, Louisiana. Since her 
marriage in 1871 she has lived in Austin, where she has a 
large circle of friends, and is much admired for her refine- 
ment, culture and personal charms. Her work as president 
of the Woman's World's Fair Exhibit Association of Texas 
was inspired by a strong attachment for the State, and the 
responsibilities of the position were faithfully discharged. 
Her social disposition, cordial manners and executive 
ability enable her to wield a wide influence. 

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Lease is the first woman in the 
United States whose name was ever mentioned seriously as 
candidate for the United States Senate. For nine years she 
was identified with Texas and took an active interest in the 
organization of the W. C. T. U. Her first public address was 
made in this State on the temperance question. In this work 
she was associated with Mrs. Sarah L. Acheson, of Denison, 
and other friends, who retain many kindly remembrances of 
the distinguished orator. It is said Mrs. Lease determined 
to go upon the rostrum when Senator Ingalls, two or three 
years ago, cynically told a Kansas audience that "woman, 
like the decalogue, has no place in politics." This is prob- 
ably legendary, for her appearance was strictly in accordance 
with the social and political development of Kansas. Wo- 
men in that State wielded an influence previously unknown 
to their sex in the more conservative East. Kept in the 
background during Republican supremacy they had been 
preparing themselves for the political conditions in that 
revolution with which the Kansas farmers two years ago 
astonished the country. Mrs. Lease then assumed the 



Prominent Women of Texas. 203 

leadership as a strong representative of her sex. She is one 
of the most conspicuous women in America, judging by the 
number of paragraphs written about her in the newspapers 
of the country. The entire press of two great jiolitical 
parties have made her the target for ridicule and abuse. 
Few have recognized her real ability, sincerity and great 
strength of character. 



INDEX 



PAGE 

Allen, Mrs. Charlotte M 36 

Acheson, Mrs. Sarah C 150 

Bell, Mrs. Mary E 42 

Brachis, Mrs. Charles 58 

Brown, Mrs. M. K 59 

Bryan, Mrs. M. A 62 

Babb, Mrs 72 

Beebe, Miss Dee 82 

Barker, Mrs. George W 84 

Brown, Miss Marion 84 

Bornefeldt, Mrs. Arthur 93 

t^-Beeker, Miss Dora V 95 

Bolton, Mrs. James 96 

Barr, Mrs. Amelia E 100 

Brown, Mrs. Mary M 104 

Beebe, Mrs. S. R 138 

Blue, Mrs. Juliette Downs 154 

Billings, Mrs. Mary C 175 

Barden, Mrs. Eva L 181 

Buckler, Mrs. J. A 183 

Boyd, Mrs. Austin Pollard 198 

Bryan, Mrs. Bettie 201 

Canterbury, Mrs. Elizabeth 40 

Connell, Mrs. J. R. C 46 

Cone, Mrs. S. E 55 

Cleveland, Mrs. G. B 57 

Clagett, Mrs. L. Richards 85 

Carr. Mrs. John O 93 

Coleman. Mrs. T. A 93 

Cravens, Miss Lena Lee 122 

Craig, Mrs. Mary Kltrell 151 

Crisp, Mrs. W. H 155 

Clarke, Mrs. Creston 156 

Coke, Mrs. Richard 163 

Clark, Mrs. George 164 

Grain, Mrs. William H 164 

Currie, Mrs. Kate Cabell 199 

Dickens, Mrs. Virginia Hunt 50 

Dignowity, Mrs. A. J 63 

Darst, Mrs. Jacob C 68 

Duvall, Mrs. Bird 84 

Davis, Mrs. M. E. M 115 

Dwyer, Miss Bessie Agness 133 

Danforth, Dr. Grace 142 

De Pelchin, Mrs. Kate 143 

Downman, Mrs. R. H 185 

Fannin, Mrs. James W. C 24 

Fulton, Mrs. George W 53 

Fordtran, Mrs. Charles 66 

Fisher, Mrs. Orceneth 69 

Fisher. Miss Marguerite 90 

Fen wick. Miss M. B 132 

Fitzgerald, Mrs. Hugh Nugent 129 

Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth Turner 148 

Foster, Mrs. Cora Bacon 198 



PAGE 

Gordon, Mrs. Lsabella 38 

Gresham, Mrs. Walter 78 

Garcia, Miss Zulema 94 

Gooch, Mrs. F. C 105 

Goodrich, Mrs. L. W 179 

Garner, Mrs. William 196 

Houston, Mrs. Sam 11 

Hadley. Mrs. P. L 45 

Hearne, Miss Cordie 84 

Hughes. Miss Bessie 90 

Harby, Mrs. Lee C 99 

Hartman. Miss Sara 133 

House. Mrs. Willie D 134 

Holland, Miss Margueret M. D 140 

Harrison, Mrs. A. C 152 

Hearne. Mrs. Anna Dial 1-53 

Hogg, Mrs. James 162 

House, Mrs. Johnnie 192 

House, Mrs. C. S 194 

Jones, Mrs. Anson 15 

Jaques, Mrs. William B 52 

Jobe, Mrs. Margaret 83 

Jordan, Mrs. Gabriel 94 

Jarvis, Mrs. J. J 120 

Jones, Mrs. Mary Abbott 191 

Kronenger, Mrs 85 

Kimball, Mrs. M. C 85 

Knight, Miss Grace 92 

King, Mrs. V. 10<5 

Kingsley, Miss Josephine 141 

King, Mrs. Richard 171 

Kampman, Mrs. Herman 193 

Lamar, Mrs. M. B 22 

Linn, Mrs. John J 68 

Lancaster, Mrs. Eva 130 

Lambdin, Miss S. L 138 

Leak, Dr. Fanny 141 

Lease, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth 202 

Mitchell, Mrs. C. W 32 

McCulloch. Mrs. John W 44 

Myers, Miss Miriam 123 

McPherson,Miss Lydia Starr 124 

Miner, Mrs. S. Isadore 127 

Mohl, Mrs. Aurelia Hadley 131 

!McCord, Adelaide 156 

McDonald, Mrs. F. A 185 

Ney, Mrs. Elizabet 76 

Nash, Mrs. Mary Louise 137 

Nalle, Mrs. Joseph 189 

Ord, Mrs. Mary Mercer 168 

(205) 



206 



Prominent Women of Texas 



PAGE 

Potter, Mrs. Dixie Crooks 88 

Pinckney , Miss Susanna 102 

Pruit, Mrs. Willie Franklin 118 

Pierre, Mother St 144 

Pickens, Mrs. Lucy Holcomb 166 

Prattlers, Mrs. W. L 177 

Parrott. Mrs. R. B 190 

Prince, Mrs. Harry 195 

Rusk, Mrs. Thomas J 18 

Richardson, Mrs. Willard 48 

Russell, Mrs. William J 61 

Ross, Mrs. Shapley P 67 

Robertson, Miss Julia S 80 

Rounsevall, Mrs. R. 139 

Reagan. Mrs. John H 163 

Rice, Mrs. William M 181 

Rotan, Mrs. Edward 193 

Sherman, Mrs. Sidney 25 

Scurry, Mrs. Richardson 54 

Shegog, Mrs. Edward 73 

Shortridge, Mrs. Bell Hunt 112 

Shindler, Mrs. M. D 116 

Spoonts, Mrs. Josephine Puett 123 

Stoddard, Mrs. Helen M 146 

Stone, Mrs. H. C 179 



Sanger, Mrs. Alexander i87 

Sydnor, Mrs. Ella Hutchins 187 

Stevens, Mrs. John J 190 

Schneider, Mrs. Jules E 193 

Silliman, Mrs. H. C 196 

Swain, Mrs. J. W 197 

Terrell, Mrs. Alexander W 192 

Townsend. Mrs. Wales J 197 

Tobin, Mrs. Benedette B 202 

Van Zandt, Miss Mamie 92 

■Wharton, Mrs. William H 30 

Weatherford, Mrs. S. L 57 

Wilson, Mrs. Augusta Evans 97 

Winkler, Mrs. A. V 101 

Whitten, Mrs. M. E 102 

Willman,Mrs. Ella 106 

West, Mrs. Florence Duval 113 

Wainwright, Miss Marie 156 

Walker, Mrs. J. C 174 

West, Mrs. John C 175 

Williams, Mrs. Thomas J 178 

Williams, Miss Madge 196 

Young, Mrs. Maud J 98 



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